Mocking Games
by Warrior princess922
Summary: None of them expected this. None of them saw this coming. They thought they knew what was going to happen. They thought they were ready to kill, to attack, to fight back.. to die. But they were wrong. "Tributes! There has been ... a small rule change."
1. Happy Hunger Games

**Disclaimer:** nothing belongs to me.

A/N: English is **not** my first language. I apologize for any mistakes. Also, my tablet was giving me a hard time when I tried to do some text editing, there might be some big spaces and etc. So when you see those, you'll know why they're there. Sorry about that, as well. Hope you enjoy reading my story, anyway!

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"If peace can only come through killing somebody.. then I don't want it."

~ Hiro Mashima

* * *

None of us had expected any of this. None of us knew this would happen. Most of us thought we were hours or days from encountering our deaths. We thought this was going to be just yet another game. Just yet another year when 23 innocent kids were going to stop breathing, to put it nicely. And I was sure I would be one of them. None of us saw that coming. Makes me wonder... if we had known, would it have changed anything? Would it have affected the training? The relations between all of us for those 2 weeks we had spent in each other's company, already seeing the death creeping onto people's faces. The smell of death everywhere around.. It makes me wonder... would have anything gone differently in the arena if we had known from the start how different the Games were going to be?

Not that it matters now. Now it's too late. Now they're all gone. It's just me now, still breathing. Still alive. Just me.

I _wish_ I'd died with them.

* * *

**DAY** 1

He took a slightly deeper breath than normal, trying so hard not to let his mentor sense that he was in fact a bit nervous about what was about to happen. He had trained for this all his life. He wanted this. Right? Why the nerves? Why did he feel like he was about to do something he didn't necessarily want to do? That's what he was born for. _This_ is who he was. Why the bad feeling? _Why **any** feelings?_

Anxiety was all he felt, as he stepped into the tube that was seconds away from lifting him up into the arena, where he would see about twenty terrified faces of his opponents. As he waited for the tube door to shut, he closed his eyes and repeated the Careers strategy plans in his head. The plan for the bloodbath they had made. It was nothing complicated. But he felt the need to go through it silently. He had never killed anyone before. Sure he had hurt people. _Badly._ But he had never actually killed anyone. What was it going to be like? Was he actually able to end someone's life? He was definitely trained for it. But actually doing it was going to be something else. He already thought of himself as a monster. What word would people use to define him after he kills all those faultless kids?

He shook his head. He had to stop thinking about it. It was just a game. He was just one of the players. It's what he lived for. It's how their world worked. Who they had raised him to be. There was no room for thinking or any sort of feelings. He just had to be passionate. Yes. Passionate about killing. Well, this was some _sick_ shit.

Before he knew it, he was breathing in fresh air. The second he opened his eyes, he understood why he had such a bad feeling about these Games. That's all it took.

_One second._ And he knew he was a part of something he was not prepared for.

Because there was no 23 other opponents or terrified faces around him. There was no Careers looking at each other with smirks on their vicious faces.

_There was no Clove._ There was no Cornucopia or weapons or supplies. There was just him. And three other faces, but not terrified, as he had imagined them to be. They were just startled and confused. Every bit as much as he was.

_There was just him._ And 3 others.

_'What the **fuck?'**_ He asked rhetorically, staring at one of his biggest enemies in the Games. He got no response. Peeta just stared back, his lips trembling a bit from the cold air and the wind that made all four of them shiver. Cato himself couldn't help but notice how freezing it was. He took his eyes off of district 12 and glanced at the little, dark-skinned girl that was on his left side. She stood there, shocked, wordless. Ever since he saw her while watching the reapings, he had been trying to keep any thoughts of the kid out of his head. It's not like he didn't know he would be most likely forced to kill 12 year olds. But he didn't exactly like thinking about it.

Cato felt as if something was squeezing his throat and so he turned his head away from Rue and to his right where the redhead from 5 was. Her pale face showed only confusion, no fear, no weaknesses. Determination, maybe. And will to figure out what the hell was going on. He knew her type of person. She was extremely clever. The Careers had spent full ten minutes, talking about the girl. They knew she was going to be sneaky. That she would use her brain in every situation in order to survive.

Despite the circumstances, his mind of a Career immediately started analyzing the situation. He almost smiled to himself, knowing it was going to be so easy to kill all three of them.

Almost _too_ easy..

_Wait._

His mouth went dry, as he reminded himself that not only was there just three people there with him, but there was no Cornucopia. Therefore, no weapons whatsoever, as far as he could see. He frowned and looked around, realizing they were on a street of what looked like an abonded city. Bulidings everywhere, dirty cars parked on the streets, trash flying around. And the wind, that freezing to the bone breeze.

_'Tributes!'_ Claudius' voice boomed around the arena finally, as Cato felt like they had been standing there for hours, staring at each other, clueless. He couldn't wait for the gong, he could not wait to get rid of those three and find other Careers to finish the job the way they were originally supposed to. Him and Clove.

But_ where_ was Clove?

_'There has been.._ a _**small** rule change.'_

Peeta clenched his fists, probably wondering where his own district partner was. Cato was wondering that, too. He wondered where the rest of his victims were. He didn't expect for the Games to change so dramatically. Then again, who did? Normally, the Capitol only added a twist for a quarter quell, every 25 years. They were in 74th Hunger Games. What the hell was going on?

_'In order to prepare our audience for the upcoming Quarter Quell, we have decided to spice up the Games this year and give them all something they had **never** seen before!'_

Cato swallowed. That did not sound good. He could tell by the faces of other tributes that they didn't see anything good coming either. Not that typical Hunger Games would have brought them anything good..

_'So far we have proudly held 71 Hunger Games that shared same rules and the only thing that always differed them was change _

_of scenery in the arena and of course, different tributes. This year we were hoping to experience something entirely new. While we are fans of routine and consistency, we are **sure** the people of the Capitol will be more_ than _delighted and grateful for this **minor** change, as it is bound to deliver_ a **_great_** _show!'_

Cato could almost sense the fear, starting to build and show on the faces of his three opponents. He would have to be stupid not to be at least a bit taken aback himself. The reason Careers were always on top of the Games was because they knew the drill. They were trained for the infamous Bloodbath, getting their food and weapons, tracking tributes down, attacking and fighting back. Cato didn't have to hear the rest of the announcement to know that the supposedly small rule change was going to change the entire Games. He just didn't know exactly how yet. But he was damn sure about to find out.

_'Tributes! You have been divided into six teams. Four tributes per team, two boys and two girls from different districts. It may come as quite a...shock to you, as well as the audience, but from now on, the people you are looking at right now'_ he paused there dramatically _'will be your allias.'_

'So much for just playing my part' Cato thought, catching Peeta mouthing a silent _'what?'._ As if he was the only one that didn't like what they'd just heard. Cato cursed under his breath. This was supposed to be easy for him. This was supposed to be something he was very well prapared and ready for. Clove was supposed to be his ally, not those three weaklings.

He felt somebody's eyes on him so he turned his head to look at little Rue. She didn't look away, she just continued to stare and he just stared back, wondering what was going through that head of hers. He couldn't help but feel at least a little bit relieved, though. He didn't have to become a child murderer the second the gong goes off.

_'You came to the Capitol, expecting for 23 other tributes to become your enemies in the arena. You woke up this morning, prepared to either attack or fight back. You thought you were ready for what's about to happen. You thought you knew everything. But you were **wrong.'**_

Cato's eyes landed on the only person that didn't seem that much moved by this whole thing. She seemed almost careless. Her red hair was all over her face, thanks to the wind, but she didn't care. She just stood there, as if it was just yet another regular day. That intrigued him.

He narrowed his eyes and looked up at the sky, waiting for the rest of the announcement. Anxiety eating him from the inside.

_'From now on, your team is your **key** to survival. From now on, you forget what you had trained for. From now on, you don't kill each other. You **protect** one another. In order to make it out of here, you keep each other_ alive. _The longer you keep your team going, the greater is your chance to win.'_

'Gotta be _kidding_ me.' Cato snapped, feeling his temper get out of hand quickly. Peeta shot him a cold look which he was more than happy to return. He was stuck with Lover boy as his ally. Magnificent.

_'Expect further announcements. We wish you happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.'_

He knew he had a bad feeling.. _dammit,_ he **knew** something didn't feel right.. where the _hell_ was Clove?

_'Let the 74th Hunger Games begin!'_

He clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white. He almost felt like hitting his head against a wall to make sure he wasn't just dreaming this. This couldn't be real, could it?

**Could it?**

_'Ten.. nine.. eight..'_

Wake up, Cato. Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up...

_'Seven.. six.. five..'_

Clove, _where_ are you?

_'Four.. three.. two..'_

It's just a dream. A really unfunny nightmare. He will wake up _any_ second now...

**_'One.'_**

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A/N: Well, I hope you like the idea and that you're interested in where I am going to take this.. :) I got no feedback on my last Hunger Games story, but since this is not a oneshot and since I have already almost finished second chapter, I am really hoping to get some reviews from you guys so that I know if there's people that want me to continue. Thanks so much for reading!


	2. Day 1

A/N: Big thank you to everyone who reviewed! Really appreciate your feedback.

I'm sorry it took me a while to update, but I somehow managed to overwrite my almost done second chapter with a different file... so I had to start all over. This is why I hate using a tablet for writing. But anyway, I think I like how this turned out more than what I had written before. Let me know what you think!

Again, English is not my first language. And I own nothing.

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"I always wished for this. But it's almost turning into more of a nightmare, than a dream."

- Marshall Mathers

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**DAY** 1

The icy breeze that the wind has brought with it was like a bucket of cold water poured right on their heads. But they still just stood there, unmoving, barely breathing. And none of them knew how to behave. None of them knew what to think. None of them was willing to move first.

If this was a typical Bloodbath, they'd all have been running in different directions by now. People watching them must be on the edge of their seats, excited as ever.

Clove didn't feel excited at all, though. She was pissed the _hell_ off. Her eyes narrowed at the person in front of her, blood pulsating in her vains angrily. Because there was _no_ way that of all people she was stuck with Katniss Everdeen, as her ally. Of all people, it **had** to be her. Somebody must have heard her swear about the girl millions of times a day since they had arrived and they just thought it'd be super entertaining to see her struggle to keep the fire girl alive. The girl she was looking forward to kill. Now all her dreams were crushed and she had to play this new role. She didn't have any choice. It was the only way if she wanted to survive. She had to play along and swallow down this big joke that was just shoved down their throats.

_Oh how all those Capitol **clowns** must enjoy this..._

Clove continued to look at the brunette who didn't really bother to glare back. She just started looking around and her eyes widened a little, as she noticed something Clove had been aware of all along.

No Cornucopia. No weapons. No food. Just trees. Only _Goddamn_ trees everywhere around.

She turned her head to the left and met Thresh's dangerous eyes, piercing her through like a very sharp knife. Okay. Now that she knew she wouldn't be in control the way she had originally thought she would, the big, muscular guy standing a few feet away had her feel threatened. She knew he was her ally. But the Game Makers can do whatever they want with those rules. They are the ones that make them. They could take this one back as easily as they introduced it.

Clove broke the eye contact and turned her head to the right now where the little boy from 4 stood, pale and shaky, but she couldn't tell if it was because of the cold or out of fear. She guessed it was both.

_Damn it._ This little guy was going to be nothing but a major pain in the ass. She knew it. She was sure that he would have been killed in the Bloodbath... if things hadn't changed, that Is.

It felt like hours had passed since the countdown. Claudius' voice was still echoing in her head, though and it was giving her a headache. She shot each one of her allies a quick glance and decided to take the matters into her hands. Somebody had to. And she was damn sure she didn't want to end up, following the orders given by anyone, but herself. She felt like making that first move was going to give her some more control.

So she stepped off her metal circle, slowly but confidently, completely sure that it wouldn't have her explode into a million pieces. She looked up at district 12 again and rose her eyebrows, daring her. She could almost sense how uncertain she was. There was no other way, though. For now. They had to play their parts. Whether they liked it or not.

Funny. Clove knew that being a member of this team in the Games was going to be way harder than murdering in cold blood. She was prepared for the latter.

This? Not so much.

She almost smiled to herself, as she realized that most probably there was only one other person in the arena that shared that feeling with her.

_Wherever he was._

* * *

Nobody dared to speak first. As soon as they finally realized that this was not a joke and that they were going to have to deal with each other from now on, they silently decided looking for food and water was what they were going to do next. So just like that, they were following Cato, having nothing to say, or maybe they were still too shocked to get a word out. Cato was anything, but surprised by now, though. He felt closer and closer to the edge with every step he was taking. It was cold enough that he could see his breath, but the rage he felt was keeping him warm.

This was the worst possible scenario that he would have _never_ thought to consider before today. He had thought about the Games a lot ever since he had volunteered. He'd considered getting different allies. He'd considered not killing too many during Bloodbath. He had even considered Clove getting hurt . Even **that** wouldn't have thrown him off as much as this did. This rule change. What the _hell_ were they thinking? What is the point? A greater show? What could have possibly made them think this was a good idea?

'We should split.' Cato spoke as the first one in the group after they had spent the last hour, walking down the dusty streets in silence. The other three looked at him with different emotions on their faces. The redhead seemed very uninterested; Cato almost found this funny. Rue just glanced at him with her eyes slightly widened and Peeta frowned.

'We're supposed to stay together. In order to survive, we have to-"

'Yeah, thank you for the painful reminder, _Lover Boy.'_ He snapped at the other guy, his hot blood running fast through his body, making it even harder for him to calm down, 'but we will have a better chance of finding water if we split, got it?'

'What if one of us dies?' Peeta challenged him again, keeping his head high, trying to let their self-proclaimed leader know he was not afraid. Cato glared dangerously and walked over, stopping right in front of him, letting him feel how big of an advantage he had over his body.

'If one of you dies' he spat through gritted teeth 'I _promise_ I won't cry.'

And with that he turned his back on everyone and started storming off, fists clenched.

'You won't cry and you won't _win.'_

Having heard that he stopped again abruptly, panting. The need to beat the hell out of district 12 was fighting with the need to consider that as much as he hated Peeta, he actually could be right. What if this decision was going to get one of them killed? What if the Game Makers were not just screwing around? What if all this was actually how things were going to stay for the rest of the show?

Cato turned his head to the side, seeing them out of the corner of his eye. They all just stood there, staring. Normally, he didn't mind when people stared. But this trio was the worst punishment ever.

Peeta swallowed hard, lips shivering, as the air around them felt like it was even colder than before.

'Fine.' Cato said finally, his voice bitter and full of resent 'we stick together.'

And with that he started walking away again and just by the silence he could tell they weren't following.

'Need an invitation? Let's **move!'** He yelled at the top of his lungs over the shoulder. Rue jumped a little and Peeta put a comforting hand on her shoulder. But this time, the three of them obeyed.

* * *

It got dark way too soon for Clove's liking. They still had no water, no food and no supplies. The woods seemed to go on and on, no fields, no streams, just trees all over the place, sounds of animals filling the silence. She never would have thought she'd feel this Goddamn helpless. That's because she was supposed to have everything she'd need. So far she had nothing, plus three super slow and useless companions. Which still meant she had nothing.

All of a sudden Katniss stopped and kneeled, touching the ground and the leaves on it. Clove heard them stop and turned around with a frown, seeing Thresh and the boy just watch the brunette getting her hands dirty.

'Too early for prayers, fire girl.' Clove said with a snort. Katniss ignored her, which only made her angrier. At this point everything they did, from walking to breathing, was annoying her. After a short while, Katniss moved to a different spot a few feet away 'The hell are you doing?' Clove snapped impatiently.

'I wouldn't think that you paid any attention to survival skills station on the training, did you?' She responded quietly, her emotionless eyes looked up at her, as if she was actually waiting for an answer. Clove didn't really have one so she just stared back coldly _'thought so.'_

Katniss got up and pointed to their left; 'we should go that way.'

'And _why_ would we?' Clove barked, absolutely clueless and mad with the fact that the other girl was telling them what to do.

'I'm trying to find water. If you don't want any, stay here. And good luck.'

And with that she just walked away, Thresh and the kid followed her without another word, leaving Clove alone and fuming.

She knew Cato would laugh at her now if he could see her. Pathetic. Wherever he was now, she was sure he was doing a _way_ better job ordering his allies around.

She shook her head firmly to get rid of any thoughts of her partner. He was not here. And he was **not** her parter anymore. Those were the hard facts.

Yet she couldn't help but think what would happen if she faced the blonde guy right now? How long would he hesitate for before trying to break her in half?

She might have been his district partner. But Cato lived for the Games. For becoming the victor. He wasn't going to spare anybody. Including her.

With one last shake of her head, she followed Katniss.

* * *

They walked into one of the tall buldings that looked completely ruined from the outside but inside, it appeared nobody had ever walked in here. Grey walls, lots and lots of small rooms and stairs. Every window was broken, the floor covered in glass. And it was absolutely empty. No furniture, no stuff, nothing whatsoever.

It was almost dark at this point so they could barely see. Cato was somewhat uncertain about trying to search this bulding now. There was a lot of floors and stairs and he just didn't feel like it was a good idea to have them look for anything useful in here. It didn't look like they'd find much anyway.

'Ok. Let's get out of here.' He told them, turning around 'we have to find shelter for tonight.'

'We could stay here.' Peeta said, looking exhausted. Dehydration was starting to affect all four of them.

_'Really,_ Mellark?' Cato barked, annoyed that district 12 dared talking back to him.

'While I'm flattered that you made an effort to remember my last name, I don't think staying here is a bad idea-'

He realized only a second too late he shouldn't have opened his mouth at all. Cato's hands locked around his neck and had him pressed against the wall before he was done talking. He gasped, as his back hit the wall hard and Rue stepped back, terrified. The redhead wrapped an arm around her shoulders, looking more than careless for once.

'Let me explain something to you, dumb _shit.'_ Cato whispered, his voice deep and dangerous 'I tell you to do something.. _and you do it!_ Clear?'

Peeta looked like he tried to glare back at him, but he probably didn't have the guts to do so, as Cato's big and muscular form held him in place, his hands squeezing his neck, demanding an answer. So he nodded, wincing and trying to push him off. Cato let go of him, looking at his startled face with crazy, dark eyes. It was like he turned into something else for that moment. And right then Peeta was sure he wouldn't hesitate to seriously wound him if he still tried to fight back or argue. The new rule wouldn't matter.

'I got it.' Said Mellark with one hand on his neck. 'Got it.'

'I sure _hope_ so.' Cato snapped, then turned around and saw the girls standing there, both pale and shaky. His eyes returned to their normal blue at the sight of them, but he said nothing. For some reason he started thinking of Clove again. Of how she never looked at him the way those two were right now. His two little allies were staring at him like he was a monster. Funny. He didn't even leave a bruise on _beloved_ Peeta. **Yet.**

_She_ never saw him as a monster. Even though he was one.

_Where are you..?_

Cato shook his head and walked away, not bothering to tell them to follow.

He knew they would.

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A/N: Thank you so much for reading. I hope you liked it and that you want me to continue. I'll really appreciate your feedback.


	3. Day 2

A/N: Hey everyone! **Thanks** to everybody that has favorited or/and followed my story, that really means a lot to me! If I may though, I would really love to get a little review from you, guys. I'd like to know what you think and make sure you're curious as to what will happen next. Also, reviews really are motivating and do make one update sooner. I'll appreciate any feedback, thanks!

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"I wish I knew how to love without killing myself. How to mend hearts without breaking my own. How to kiss and not create bruises."

- Michelle K. 'Things I wish I knew how to do'

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**DAY** 2

She looked beautiful. Not in a desirable kind of way. Just beautiful. And he hated that he thought of her that way. He enjoyed being the no strings attached type of guy with killer skills, great reputation, no real feelings towards anyone and fan girls everywhere around. He enjoyed being popular, not having to be scared of Peacekeepers. But things can never be perfect. Especially not in Panem. And they weren't perfect for him because he found his eyes obsessively attached to her. She was just a girl. A 15 year old. Just a little, skinny, dark-haired, blunt, sarcastic knife thrower. There's no way that he would ever even _think_ of talk-

"Hey Clove."

_Idiot._

She turned her head to look at him, knife in her hand, as she stood in front of the dummies in an abandoned training room. She didn't say anything. Just stared. And he felt ten times smaller under her burning gaze.

"I've seen you with those knives. You're, uh," he smiled "fairly decent."

She crossed her arms over her chest and turned her body fully towards him. Her long, shiny, black hair tied into a ponytail was down to her waist. She had to be at least a foot shorter than him.

_"Fairly decent_ is your hair. My knife throwing skills are **perfect."** She said arrogantly, or maybe sincerely, looking up at him with narrowed eyes. He felt a lump in his throat. _Damn her..._

See, that's the thing about men. They always want something that they can't easily get. They want the excitement. An adventure. Clove was definitely all that.

"Yeah, I'll give you that." He admitted with a nod, putting on one of his sexy smirks that always made every girl weak in the knees.

She turned her back on him. And it felt like she just punched him in the balls.

"So what do you want, Cato?" She asked, lifting her arm, knife ready to fly.

His head shot up and a smile formed on his lips. So she **did** know who he was. She knew his name, after all. _Clove_ knew his name.

"Well I came here for some extra training hours, didn't know anyone would be here." He lied smoothly.

There was a noise as Clove's knife hit the dummy right where a person's heart would be. Cato parted his lips slightly in awe. Man, she really _was_ perfect.

Clove looked around the big training room and then at him over her shoulder.

"I see. Am I in your way?" She asked sarcastically. "Wouldn't wanna take up too much room."

"No," Cato said a little bit too fast "I mean, I just saw you so I thought I'd say hi, you know. You're the only one here, so.. "

She raised her eyebrows again and nodded slowly, a ghost of a smirk playing on her sweet mouth.

"Okay then, Cato."

_He **loved** his name on her lips._

"Yeah, anyway.. carry on. You really _are_ good." He complimented her, taking a few steps back.

She snorted.

"Ok, ok, you're **perfect."** He corrected himself, smirking, still facing her, as he was walking away. She really _was_ perfect, though. Not only when it came to knife throwing. But he couldn't tell her that.

"That's better." She teased. "Don't underestimate me."

"I wouldn't _dare,_ don't feel like ending up with a knife in my ass!" He called to her, as by now he was already on the other side of the room. She laughed. He _actually_ made her laugh.

_The sound of it was the **sweetest** thing he's ever heard..._

His eyes opened as he woke up, cutting his dream short. Well, his memory actually. Clove's laugh was still echoing in his head.

What the **hell** was wrong with him? He thought he had quit thinking of her this way the minute they found out they were the ones to volunteer for the Games. Together. What were the odds? Clove was way too young, and yet they had chosen her. He couldn't help, but blame himself in a way. He _never_ should have started training with her. They had seen them together at the Academy, their minds synchronized and bodies moving in the same rhythm, as they fought and pushed each other to become better even if they were at the top of their game already.

They were _perfect_ training partners. Of course they'd picked them.

_It was his fault._ He had known from the very beginning that developing any sort of feelings for _anyone_ would not do him any good. He had never had to worry about that before he met _her._ He had no parents or family. He had no real friends, just a group of fan girls and guys that liked to be seen with him, hoping for increasing their scores at the Academy. He had never cared for anyone, but himself. Thats why he knew he was perfect for a tribute. Well, he _would_ have been. He still promised himself he was going to snap out of it the moment he got on that train with Clove. He had to. He was sure he could still pull this off and hide that little piece of a human being deep inside. Hide the way he felt about the girl who was going to have to **die** if he was to win.

And then there was the rule change. And she wasn't here with him now. She could be anywhere. He shouldn't care. It's not like anything had really changed that much. She was still going to die.

How he wished she were here.. How he wished he had told her before..

Told her what, though? That he liked her? _Loved her..?_

**No.** He was a _Career._ They don't know _how_ to love. If they did, they wouldn't be able to murder people in cold blood for the sake of the show.

And yet.. something about her had made him more humane. This girl had him dream about something other than death and blood. For the first time since he was born, he knew how to look forward to something other than training. He had tried to tell himself that he hated that feeling. That he hated _her._ But how could he hate the only person in the world he considered more important than his damn self? How could he hate someone that made him feel happy by just looking at him? One smile or even a nod in his direction would make his day. And she had no idea. She had _no_ clue.

And so there he was, unable to throw the image of her pretty face out of his head. Thinking that he didn't know where she was and who she was in an alliance with was driving him _crazy._ Was she okay? Was she safe?

_Why do you care?_ He thought. It was _ridiculous._ He knew she had to die, because he wanted to win. _Why_ did he care?

Cato cursed under his breath, annoyed with himself AND the girl occupying his confused mind. He sat up slowly and his eyes connected with the redhead's. She had this odd look on her face, as if something surprised her.

"What?" He asked, fairly polite. She blinked a few times and looked away. He smirked to himself. She probably stared at him while he was asleep. That girl was definitely intriguing. She hasn't said a single word since the Games had started.

"Let's wake them up." He told her, getting up and glancing at sleeping Rue and Peeta. His eyes lingered on the little girl longer than he had intended them to. What was _happening_ to him?

"I'll take care of Lover Boy over here," he said hurriedly. He did not want to come off as soft while trying to gently shake the kid. And kicking her didn't sound like a good idea, either. So he walked over to Peeta and kicked him instead.

"Sun's up, Lover Boy." He said, watching him wake up with a startle. Peeta glared, but knew better than to say something. Cato smirked and looked at district 5 girl, lightly shaking Rue awake. The little girl woke up right away with a yawn. Cato was fast to look away.

"Let's get moving." He ordered, already walking off.

He hated what was happening to him. He liked feeling numb as he used to before, completely rid of feelings. Careless. Because living like this.. was so much more difficult. It was like he was carrying extra weight on him the whole time. There was no getting away from it. The more he tried to tell himself it was all just in his head, the more he felt the lump, having begun to form in his throat, growing bigger and bigger with every single thought of Clove.

_Snap out of it,_ he told himself. _You'll be the death of her._

He couldn't help but fear that if he ended up killing her... he wouldn't be able to live with himself. And if that's true.. what the _hell_ did he need to win for then?

* * *

Clove had got up before Katniss managed to even think of waking her. There was an awkward silence between the two, but she was fast to break it, deciding it was time to keep going. So she picked herself up from the hard ground, feeling sore, tired and very dehydrated. Fire girl was staring at her from her spot by the tree and it was driving her crazy.

"What are you looking at?" Clove snapped, stretching her arms out "Stare at Hulk instead for a while, would you?"

_Crap._ That **almost** sounded polite. For Clove, anyway. She let her arms down and placed her hands on her hips, eyebrows arched, eyes focused on the brunette.

Katniss just shrugged and got up from the ground, looking very unimpressed with Clove's glare and hard voice.

"Just thought you should know there's a big spider on your shoulder."

Clove glanced at her arm and, to Katniss' surprise, let out a shriek, as she tried to shake it off. Thresh woke up, alarmed and was in a sitting position within a second. He furrowed his eyebrows, watching Clove do some sort of a dance right in front of him. He then looked at Katniss who risked a small smirk.

"Is it still on me?" Clove gasped, looking up and noticing how now all three of her allies were staring at her with amused faces. _"What?_ Did you see that thing? As big as a fist." She snapped, breathing quicker than normally. She was not exaggerating, though. The Capitol always liked experimenting.

Thresh got up, not being able to supress a smirk at how vulnerable and normal her actions were.

"You're good now." Katniss said, no longer smiling, but her voice was still slightly amused.

"I hate spiders, **ok?"** Clove barked, desperately trying to save her face. _Great,_ she thought. Now they thought she was completely useless. She wasn't the crazy, scary knife thrower anymore in their eyes. Now she was just a little girl with a frown on her face and a nasty personality. A girl that's scared of a _spider._

"Okay," Katniss nodded. Clove clenched her fists, as she took a glance at the boy from 4 and realized that even that little piece of shit wasn't afraid of her. If he was, he would have _never_ dared let that smile show on his face.

"It _was_ a big one." Katniss admitted, as if to try and make her feel better about what just happened "shall we get moving?"

Feeling extremely stupid, Clove threw her an angry glare and pushed past her, purposely hitting the brunette's shoulder with hers.

"You all won't be so amused when I finally get to kill each one of you." she snapped, blood pulsating in her veins as she walked away from them.

And she meant every word. They will be _sorry._ She knew that sooner or later this rule would be revoked. And she could not wait for that moment to come.

She wished Cato was here. She had always been a loner before she met him. She didn't know how to be a leader. She didn't know how to deal with people. How to make them listen. She was great at hand to hand combat, despite how small she was. But jumping any of them seemed like a bad idea with Thresh around. She still felt tempted to wipe that little smile off of Katniss' face.

* * *

Peeta ran a hand through his damp hair and let out a heavy breath, as the four of them were walking up a hilly street. The sun was out, it was humid and it must have been at least 90 degrees. He couldn't believe it. Yesterday, they were freezing their butts off. He barely slept at night, due to hard floor and negative temperature. And _now?_ He was sweating out the rest of the water he had inside his body. That's what the Game makers were trying to do. He was sure of it. Not only was it an attempt to tire them out or get them sick, they wanted them to be even more dehydrated.

Nobody has died yet. It was probably the middle of day 2 and **nobody** has died yet. They had to spice it up. He assumed, though, that the new rule was entertaining enough for the audience. Otherwise they would have made sure somebody died the very first day.

_"Where_ is everyone?" he decided to ask. He really did want to know, as it made him very nervous. They have been walking around for about twenty hours total and not once did they even _hear_ anyone else. Where was Katniss? He knew she was still alive, but was she okay? _Was she **safe?**_ He knew she could handle being out there without any supplies, she was a survivor. But he was still worried. He didn't really expect for her to ally with him in the Games. Not after what he had publicly confessed. But thinking that she was allies with three others now, and he had no clue who they were, it just wasn't very comforting. He supposed they had set her up with a Career, as well. Just to make things even more interesting. He could bet on it.

_Where was everyone?_

"Probably sunbathing." Cato replied to his question, his voice cold and annoyed. Peeta knew he was irritated with the new rule and with how lousy things have been going for them. He didn't get to slaughter anyone yet. Poor fucking bastard.

_"Peeta,"_ Rue whispered so softly he almost missed it. He looked at her over his shoulder and instantly felt bad for the girl. Her lips were chapped and pale and her face was all covered in drops of sweat. Her eyes were red and wet, as if she was just crying.

"What's up?" He asked her quietly, concerned, but trying not to let Cato hear at the same time.

"I need a brake." She moaned, putting one of her hands on her stomach "I _can't_ anymore."

Peeta looked up and locked eyes with Foxface. She looked almost as bad as Rue, but seeing his worried face, she shook her head, letting him know that she was fine. He nodded and slowed down so that Rue could catch up with him. He knew Cato would never let them take a brake now. He was too damn determined to find water. And well, he couldn't blame him. He wasn't about to try and fight the guy, either. That mass of a human being seemed to be doing pretty well under these circumstances. He, on the other hand, was just too darn tired, thirsty and hungry.

"Hop on my back." Peeta told her and stopped walking long enough for her to grab his shoulders and jump onto his back with the help of Foxface. He stood up and started walking again, feeling her lie her head down on his shoulder blade. Cato must have heard the little fuss so he took a quick glance at them and rose his eyebrows at the scene behind him. He said nothing, though. Peeta wasn't able to read his face, either.

Rue's little hands were wrapped gently around his neck and he could feel her hot, rapid breath on his skin.

_"Thank you.."_ she whispered tiredly and he smiled to himself. Katniss would be happy if she could see him now. How he _wished_ she were here to see that...

"You're welcome, Rue."

* * *

Within a few hours it was dark again. Clove was panting hard, as much as she tried to hide it from her allies. She could barely take it by now, though. She was so weak and exhausted. The other three seemed to be doing better than her and she knew why. They were prepared for these conditions. They were survivors. They have been surviving all their lives. She was a Career. She grew up in the Academy. Her body was not ready for such an extreme change. She was in great shape, but she knew she was slowly dying. She'd kill everyone on her way for a sip of water. Well.. if she had enough strenght to do so.

Clove walked over to the nearest tree and rested her hand on it, trying not to pass out.

"You alright?"

She turned her head to look at Thresh who stood right next to her. And there was no sarcasm or satisfaction in his voice. Katniss and the kid carried on walking, both shooting her a glance before they passed them by. Clove licked her dry lips and surprisingly contained herself from snapping at him. Which wasn't very hard, as for some reason her ally's question did not get on her nerves.

"Yeah," she told him, nodding. He stared down at her and shockingly the look on his face was not disgusted anymore and his dark eyes lacked the hatred they used to be filled with whenever he looked at her. She didn't know what to think about that. And thankfully, she didn't have to think too hard, because Katniss' voice broke their eye contact.

_"Thresh!"_ she called at the top of her lungs. They hesitated just a second before running off in the direction her voice came from. They stormed into a small clearing and stopped abruptly. A smile creeped onto Clove's face.

In the moonlight there was a glistening stream, smiling back at her. For a few beautiful seconds she felt _relieved._ Just for a few seconds, though.

Because that's how long it took her to understand that the water Katniss has finally found was _not_ the reason she'd called for them. She also realized why she had yelled only Thresh's name.

On the other side of the stream, there stood nobody else, but Marvel and Glimmer, vicious smirks spread on their faces. Sharp and shiny swords in their hands.

* * *

A/N: Cliffhanger! And we got a little insight on Katniss and Peeta this time, as well. I hope you liked this chapter. Please, consider leaving me a little review if you want me to continue. **Thanks** for reading!


	4. The lamb and the wolf

A/N: Thank you **so** much for your reviews! Really appreciate it. Hope you like this chapter, because I had major trouble finishing it, I think I rewrote it like three times.

Anyhow, enjoy.

* * *

"I feel I could kill. I feel that I might like it. And I know it should scare me. But it doesn't. It excites me."

- _Nenia Campbell "Fearscape"_

* * *

Clove had always been a loner. She had been abondonded by her parents, she didn't even know who they were, she didn't know whether maybe she had any siblings. She had no friends, really. She grew up in the Academy around people with the same or similar mind set that they had taught _her._

In her whole life not once had she felt the need to doubt whether killing innocent kids for entertainment was right or not. _Until now._

She had been surrounded by young girls and boys who believed the biggest achievement of their lives would be to go in the Games, kill everyone, including their own partner, and bring pride to their district. _Until now._

No longer was she around people who were trained to wound, torture, murder and **laugh** while they do it. No longer was she around guys like Cato whose the entire sense of life was focused around the Games. Now she was with kids who were scared. Kids who did not choose to be here. Kids who would have not grabbed the weapons and started killing for fun if things had not changed so unexpectedly.

She _hated_ them. She did. But she couldn't help but feel so thrown off by all this. She was allies with people that were capable of caring and _loving;_ unlike her they _did_ have someone at home praying for them. They did have someone to go back to.

What was the reason she wanted to win? She had dedicated her entire existence to training and the Games because nobody gave her any other choice. She thought she wanted this. _No,_ she **did** want this. She still did want to win. She wanted all the glory and fame and all that. Right?

She **hated** them. Their presence was enough to confuse her mind. It's like when you're around sick people and, automatically, you begin feeling sick yourself. But it's all just in your head, isn't it?

_Isn't it?_

They were not killers. They were not cold and empty. They were just human beings. They were good people. They did not deserve any of this. They did not choose to be here. They were taken away from their home and family to fight with people like... _her._

It all didn't matter, though. Since when did she even waste time thinking about it? She hated them. Period. Right?

... _Right?_

"Well, look at our little Clove."

Her thoughts were brutally interrupted, as Marvel's voice sent a shiver down her spine. And the reason for it wasn't because they had caught her off guard. It wasn't because she knew she was at the verge of passing out, unarmed and they stood there, both of them so confident, strong and equipped.

It was because of how vicious his voice sounded. And how it made her realize hers sounded _nothing_ like his anymore.

"You ended up with the girl on fire, huh?" Marvel continued with a cruel laugh **"hot** damn!" He shot Glimmer a glance and her own smirk grew wider.

In spite of how hard she had been trying to fight it, naussia won that battle and took over her body, making her wince. Her dry throat started burning, as her mouth filled with saliva at the sight of the deliciously looking water that was so close, and yet so far. She was so exhausted and thirsty that she considered ignoring the shiny swords of her, _now,_ enemies'. She just wanted one little sip. Two tops. That would make her start thinking so much more clearly.

For some reason, though, her mind was still sober enough to comprehend a little and she could tell that those two were not about to just invite her to join the Career pack. Something about the hate in their eyes and the satisfied smirks at finally having found her, told her that whatever was about to happen would involve a lot of running and sword swinging.

Still though, she sensed more than noticed that her allies had slowly started to back away from her. She knew they didn't trust her. She couldn't blame them. She would have done the same. And they didn't have the slightest idea what their intentions really were. So ironic.

"I was hoping we'd find you first, _little girl."_ Marvel spoke again and Clove glared at him intensely. How **dare** he use his nickname? "That way we will have a very nice story to tell _Cato_ when we see him."

Clove didn't know whether it was dehydration or hunger or both, but for some reason as soon as his name was mentioned, her blood started pulsating angrily in her body and she clenched her fists weakly. So much for an alliance, right? She wasn't sure how she felt about the rule change anymore. All she knew was that she was supposed to be the one to corner other tributes with a vicious smirk on her face and a dagger in her hand. Not that blonde bimbo who looked like she barely knew which end of the knife was to be used to stab the opponent.

_How_ did she end up here? For the first time in her life she understood what it felt like to be from a lower, weaker district. For the first time in her life she lacked control. She was the lamb. And they were the wolves.

"We were considering having you join us, Clove, but you see.." Glimmer said, taking a dagger out of the inside of her jacket and admiring it. Clove couldn't help but stare at it hungrily, "we just don't like you very much."

"You're breaking my _heart,"_ Clove choked out sarcastically, trying to make her voice sound way stronger than she actually felt. Number one rule in the Academy was to never let your enemy know you are weaker. Because once they have realized that, they will beat you for sure. But if they don't know, you still stand a chance.

"There's a reason you're still stuck with your allies while we had gotten all the supplies." Marvel said, ignoring her last words "don't take it personally, this would have happened sooner or later anyway, even if the rules had never changed."

_Bullshit._ He couldn't be this dumb. Cato would have never allowed him to put a single finger on her. That son of a bitch would have definitely died first. That much she knew for sure. _He_ had promised her that. He'd promised that they were going to be the last two standing.

"Yeah?" Clove snapped, trying to stay concious and alert while her head was pounding painfully like never before, "How 'bout we do this later then?"

Marvel let out a semi-sincere laugh and shook his head, "Sorry, Clove. People wanna see some blood. It's about time someone dies, don't you think?"

"Absolutely," _stay conscious, stay **concious**_ "how about you run yourself through with that sword of yours then? I'm sure people will _love_ that."

His eyes hardened somewhat. She knew there was no going around it. She knew there was a great risk she was about to get killed, ironically by district 1. But she couldn't help but try to piss them off. It's who she was. She was not gonna beg them to go away.

"I'd rather run it through you, **little girl."** He whispered darkly, again purposely using Cato's nickname.

"Then what the **hell** are you waiting for?"

She was pushing her luck, she knew it. But him calling her that again had sent another wave of hate down her body. There was a very small chance she would be able to run away from him. She knew she was about to perform the slowest jog in her life. But it's not like there was anything she could do. Her body and her mind were not entirely hers anymore.

Marvel glared at her even more intensively; this wasn't turning out like he had imagined apparently. He probably wanted her to beg or cry, shatter her image of a strong, vicious and sarcastic Career. Well, she had wrecked two thirds of it by now. She was gonna die sarcastic, though. Whatever was about to happen, she was not going to give that one up.

It all happened very slow or maybe it was just her mind that had been working in slow motion. Marvel and Glimmer took a step towards them, into the water of the stream and she turned her head to look at her three allies who were no longer there. She knew they had just taken off, though. There was no way Marvel would have wasted time talking to her if they had started running off. Clove spun around and feeling as if something was holding her back, she began to run. Immediately she noticed the figures of her allies disappearing in the darkness of the forest in front of her. It seemed like they were trying to stick together. Well, _how about that._ Turns out they were not much different from Careers, apparently. She was on their team, yet they didn't even look back. Did they think Marvel and Glimmer were just kidding? That they actually were trying to fool her allies and wanted her to join so she could help them kill her team? They were forgetting something important. If she dies, their chances of winning will also get hurt. _Good._

Her bitter thoughts were long forgotten, as she felt Glimmer's dagger cut open her upper left arm as it flew by. She screamed out in pain, but did not stop. Silently thanking Glimmer for sucking at aiming, she placed her right hand over the cut, feeling hot blood quickly making its way out it. She cursed under her breath. She must have been really slow. Under different circumstances, Glimmer would have never been able to hurt her in any way.

She could barely see in the dark but she could damn sure hear someone running hot on her heels. She couldn't think of anything that would help her out. She was too weak to run faster, too hurt to climb a tree. And whoever was chasing her was way too close by now, so there was no use for hiding.

It seemed like hours had passed before she felt her legs slow down significantly without her permission and maybe a few seconds after, a body crushed into her and sent her flying on the ground. She gasped loudly, as her wounded arm made contact with the hard ground. Her opponent spun her around so she could look him in the eyes.

"Where do you think you're _going?"_

Marvel grabbed her hands and pinned them both above her head with one of his strong arms. She cried out in pain and felt blood flowing down her shoulder.

"Aw, I'm **sorry,** did that hurt?" He asked cruelly and she felt the end of his sword poking her side sharply. "Game over, _sweetheart._ Any last words? For Cato perhaps?"

"Oh _fuck you,_ Marvel." She hissed, gritting her teeth in pain and anger, wanting nothing more than to hurt him.

"Well, I'd love to but he wouldn't like that, would he?"

She had no idea why he felt the need to talk about Cato. Sure, Careers always liked talking shit about their victims' family or friends before they kill them. But for some reason this seemed so much more personal.

"You think he'll _cry_ when he sees your face in the sky tonight?" He mocked, probably enjoying having her at his mercy and thinking about how her death will affect the big, bad Cato...

It hit her. All of a sudden. It was simple, really. Marvel must have **hated** Cato. For being stronger, a better fighter, better looking, way more impressive. For having scored higher. And Cato was originally supposed to be the leader. He had hogged that position without any speculations. It had become clear to everyone the moment they started talking about an alliance. He hated him. And so naturally, he hated _her._ That was gonna make it so much easier for him to kill her. Not that he would have had trouble doing it, anyway.

Another reason why he hated her so much was probably because she was somewhat under Cato's protection. Well she _would_ have been. And whether Marvel liked it or not, that guy was scary. And unfortunately for Marvel, Cato had made it clear she was gonna be his kill. He had let district 1 know that if they even _thought_ about trying to take her down in the Games, there would be **hell** to pay. She remembered the day he had said that to them and the fairly scared looks on their faces. She had found that hilarious at the time. She remembered how she had promised him that she was **not** gonna go down easily. She remembered he'd laughed at her response.

Marvel was bloodthirsty. She could see it in his eyes. She wondered would she have the same look on her face if it was her about to kill someone right now. She had never done it before. She knew she was ready. At least she had been before she found herself stuck in a very unexpected and poisonous environment.

Now, Marvel, all armed and _anything_ but weak was apparently longing to find out what would it be like to finally do something he had been training his entire life for. He was going to enjoy it, she was sure of that. His first kill was going to be his almost ally from the district that could have been his biggest threat.

"Go ahead. **Kill** me." She snapped, trying to ignore the burning pain in her arm and the fact that she could feel that she was dying anyway. "Nothing like an injured, smaller, _unarmed_ girl for your first kill to make you feel all superior and **powerful,** huh?"

That hit home. There was one thing Careers did believe in. _Pride._ Clove used to feel like a Career once upon a time. She knew exactly what to say to buy herself some more time. For whatever reason.

He stared at her for a long while, slighty panting in rage. She had hurt his pride.

_"Fine."_ He growled finally, letting go of her and standing up. She sat up slowly, not too sure what his next move was gonna be, "get **up."** He ordered and she got on her feet, hissing in pain under her breath and fighting back tears. He held up his sword for her to see and then tossed it aside on the ground. Her eyes followed it and then she looked back up at him with furrowed eyebrows, beginning to understand what he wanted to do, "Want me to let you go down fairly? Like a Career you were _supposed_ to be?" He asked, spreading his arms "so be it."

He clenched his fists tight and held them up in front of his face, smirking at her like a psychopath that he was.

"Let's go, Clove." He said, cocking his head to the side "show me what you got, _little girl."_

* * *

"I'm fucking **done** with this _damn_ city." Cato cursed to no one in particular. He was so frustrated. They had been searching for water,food and anything that could be used as a weapon in almost every single building they passed on the way and they had found nothing. Dusty streets, wrecked cars and trash flying around were everything they saw in front of them. Dehydration and hunger were pretty much unbearable by now and Cato was ready to explode. It was dark again and the moonlight was not much help. He looked over his shoulders at his allies. Peeta looked like he was at the verge of passing out, yet _still_ had Rue on his back. That made Cato even agrier, if that was even possible.

_"Put her down,"_ he snapped "there'll be no use for you if you black out. She's **fine."**

Normally, Peeta would have probably sent him a glare, but reading between lines, Cato had a point. Rue must have gained some strenght back by now and he was barely conscious. Peeta stopped to let the girl hop off his back. She looked at him gratefully and patted his back gently. Cato looked behind them and frowned.

"Where's Ginger?"

Peeta, who was panting hard with his hands on his knees, looked up and turned around, so did Rue.

"She was right behind us like, a minute ago."

Cato swore under his breath and started to look around furiously, not sure whether it was safe to call for her or not. He could barely see what was fifteen feet in front of him.

"If she gets herself killed, I _swear_ I'll tie you two up so that you don't fuck up my chances." Cato barked, running a hand through his head angrily.

"Yeah? With _what?"_ Peeta snapped back before he could stop himself. To his surprise, Cato just glared. He must have been too angry with district 5 girl to pay him any mind. Rue smiled at his smart remark, but her smile faded when she met Cato's hard eyes.

"Think it's funny?" He whispered dangerously "this will mess up your chances, too. Not that you have **any** to begin with."

_"You done?"_

Cato turned on his heels at the sound of her voice and surely there she was. Red hair, pale face, arms crossed over her chest.

"Well, _look_ at that," he snapped, but he couldn't help but feel relieved _"it **speaks."**_ He growled, referring to how quiet she'd been until now.

She took no offence to that, not surprisingly. Just let her arms down and looked at him tiredly.

"If you're interested, I think I know where we should look for water next."

* * *

It was hopeless. She knew it. What choice did she have though? He was not gonna let her go. And giving up was something she had never done in her life before. She wasn't about to start now. She didn't know _how_ to give up. She was gonna fight until her last breath. It wasn't about going down like a Career anymore. It wasn't about trying to get out of it. She was dead already. Warm blood running down her arm felt like her own life was escaping her body.

It was about dying strong. She might have been dehydrated and exhausted and wounded, but she was **not** weak. The fact that she still stood straight was a proof.

She lifted her small, slightly shaking fists to her face and took a deep breath. She was great at hand-to-hand combat, but _damn it,_ that was only because thanks to her small posture she was very quick. But now? She was anything but that.

_"Shall we?"_ She choked out, smirking as viciously as she could, although she knew she looked nothing like her old self. It didn't matter anymore.

Marvel did not smirk back. He just marched right up to her and threw the first punch that meant to hit her stomach. Thankfully, she dodged his fist and hit the middle of his chest with her healthy arm. He probably barely felt it. He was fast, too. His other fist hit her so quick she almost felt like the pain had come before she saw any movement. She gasped and stumbled back a few steps, but still stayed strong. Marvel couldn't help but look impressed.

"I thought you were nothing but a little, scared girl without your precious knives," he said, staring her down "guess I was mistaken."

She gritted her teeth and tried to punch him in the face but he caught her hand and used his other hand to punch her in the stomach again. All the air escaped her lungs and tears blurred her vision. He let go of her arm and attempted to hit her again but this time she was prepared and moved out of the way before his fist could reach her than threw a punch to his throat, leaving him breathless for a few seconds. He choked and she took advantage of that and kicked his calf. He dropped to his knees. She got ready to punch him in the face but he recovered fast and hit her wounded arm. She cried out.

Past all the pain and tears, there was one more thing she could see.

A _coward._

* * *

"How the _hell_ did you figure this out?"

The girl in front of him didn't even look over her shoulder. She just continued walking, leading the three of them to the edge of the forest.

"The wind." She replied simply "plus, we spent two days searching for water in the city and found nothing. I figured there must be something out there, except for the ruins."

Cato nodded to himself, not liking how she turned out to be the most clever of them all. There was a way bigger chance of finding water in the woods. Wait, was she actually trying to be the leader now?

This whole game was starting to make sense. Since the Game Makers had already changed the rules, _extremely,_ it wasn't that surprising to realize they had changed more than that. They must have divided not only tributes, but the arena itself, as well. Now Cato understood why they hadn't even stumbled across a single team yet. It seemed like the Capitol was having fun, just watching them struggle with each other for now. It sounded boring to him, though... something else must have happened. Something else **must** be going on _right_ now...

"Can you actually find water?" He decided to ask, because _shit,_ he had no idea about survival skills. That was the one station in the training Careers never paid any attention to.

"I can." She replied "not sure how fast, it depends on how close we are to any source."

"Well, you _better_ find some soon." He ordered, a hint of a threat in his voice. She still didn't even look back. She knew he was not gonna hurt her. At least for now. And he **hated** that.

As soon as they stepped into the woods they felt a nice, refreshing breeze that made them all feel a tiny bit better after they had spent all day in burning heat. Cato let out a deep breath, appreciating the much fresher air. Whoever had been stuck in the woods from day one was lucky.

Ginger stopped to inspect the ground and Cato, for oncem decided not to say anything and patiently waited until she was ready to keep moving. He actually wished he had learned at least a bit about survival skills; he wouldn't have had to feel so outsmarted if he had.

After a little while she got up with a small smile on her face. He assumed it was a good sign, so he rose his eyebrows at her questioningly. She said nothing, though. _Of course._

"You're not exactly people person, are you?" He growled at her and she just stared at him blankly.

"Are _you?"_

And just like that she carried on walking, leaving him considering whether he should knock her out or not. Who did she _think_ she was? How could she seem so fearless? How was he not _intimidating_ her? He had to let it slide, though. She was after all looking for water.

Behind him he could hear the little girl's heavy breathing. It annoyed him. He clenched his jaw in order to stop himself from snapping at her. What would he say anyway? _Stop breathing?_ Under different circumstances, he would be glad if she did.

He hated being stuck with those weaklings so much. He hated how things had turned out. He hated what was happening to him. He hated how much he was thinking about things. About _her._ For some reason, the further they walked, the more anxious he felt himself getting. _Was she in danger?_

He remembered how he felt when he heard her voice coming from the crowd of young girls: "I _volunteer!"_ she'd yelled. Then she'd gone and walked up on the stage. That was the first and only time that he'd ever been scared.

Why? _Why her, **dammit?**_ Of **all** the people he didn't give a crap about? Anyone else, _anyone,_ and he would have been the happiest victor-to-be. He had only waited for this his entire, fucking life. _What_ was he supposed to do now?

_Stupid. You should have **never** started training with her..._

His constant thoughts were thankfully interrupted, as he stepped into a clearing where Ginger stood in front of the **one** thing they had been looking for so desperately.

There it was. Not even ten feet away. A deliciously looking stream.

He took another step forward and frowned, then looked down. Peeta and Rue stopped, as well, right behind him, probably wondering what the hell he was doing. They had to be really interested in what had caught his attention, because all three of them resisted the extremely huge urge to have a drink and gathered around him, instead.

Cato kneeled and picked up the hard object he could feel under his shoe, that he had just stepped on. His eyebrows furrowed. In his hand there was a dagger. He slid his fingers up its blade and felt something wet on them. _Panic_ started to set in.

He looked up. Peeta and Rue were frowning down on him, while Ginger, as always, looked fairly relaxed.

"It's blood." He told them, knowing they had figured it out already on their own, _"fresh blood."_

* * *

She remembered how it had never bothered her how ruthless he was. Aggressive. _Souless._ Maybe it was because she knew she was _just_ like him. Or maybe because he was never all those things around her or towards her. She hadn't even noticed that before. Not until now. Not until she found herself stuck in here with way too much free time on her hands and _normal_ people as her allies. Because of that, all she could do was think. And all she could think about was _him._

Was he her friend? Potentially? _Did it even matter?_

It **did.** Because she knew she was about to die. It's something that really _does_ change people. Because even her, as malicious and evil as she had been and felt all her life, _even_ **her,** Clove, needed some sort of comfort now that she was so sure this was **it.**

So, _desperately,_ she started looking for _any_ good memory, a smile, or a laugh and everything that included those came with Cato's face in it. She had never smiled, _really_ smiled, or laughed as much with anyone else. She barely did that ever, really.

That was all she remembered. Just her and Cato, smiling. Or sharing a brief laugh. Training. Cato. More training. _More Cato.._

The pain was overwhelming. She was not giving up. She just wasn't able to get back on her feet. Dehydration and blood loss was too much and there was _no_ way she would throw another punch. Marvel's fist had hit her injured arm so hard she was shocked she hadn't blacked out. _How_ was she still concious?

"I guess we're done here. " his voice reached her ears as if he stood somewhere really far from her.

As her final attempt to survive, as little as she knew it'd do, she started crawling away on all fours, very slow, her arm screaming in protest. Marvel took a few steps towards her and grabbed a big knife from his belt.

_"Don't worry, Clove."_ He murmured "you'll see your friend again soon. I'll make **sure** of that."

She had never felt so much _hate_ for anyone in her life. In that moment, she didn't care that she knew Marvel was only about to do something that was necessary in order to save his own life. She didn't care that she knew if she had gotten the supplies, _she'd_ have been the one killing somebody viciously right now. She didn't care that all this was the game she had _signed up_ for and that the Capitol was what she should hate so much.

None of this mattered, because this guy, that was about to end her, had just threatened the life of her _only_ friend and all that she could do was hate him for it. She wasn't even capable of speaking anymore. She wasn't even able to glare.

Marvel lifted the knife and she decided it was time to close her eyes.

Instantly, Cato's face appeared in her head, easing her fear. The only person she wished she could see just _one_ more time. There was nobody else out there that would care for her death. She hoped he would. At least a little bit. At least for _one_ minute. She wished she'd told him that at times he was the only reason she'd get up in the morning. She wished she'd told him how much she liked spending time with him, even if it was just training. She wished she'd told him a lot of things. Because he had no idea. Not a _clue_ about any of it. She had never, not even once, acted like she gave a shit about him. Just a smirk here, a short laugh there. And nothing else in between.

She wished she had known earlier all that that she knew now.

She didn't want to look at Marvel when he kills her. She wanted to die with Cato's face in front of her eyes. That way she knew she'd end up going, feeling a little more humane. A little more _normal._ That way she would die, knowing there was someone in her life worth remembering. And it would ease all this pain that was sure about to follow.

The pain never came, though. Instead she heard a sharp breath and a few seconds after a loud thud right beside her. She opened her teary eyes and turned her head.

A breathless gasp escaped her mouth, seeing Marvel lying flat on his stomach on the ground right next to her.

Canon cut through the silence and echoed in her ears, leaving her feeling even colder and numb.

She couldn't stop the shaking. His open, dead eyes looked _right_ at her and for a few seconds she thought they were going to be the last thing she sees before death finally takes her away.

Disoriented, she looked up, breathing rapidly, feeling her entire body shutting off. Through tears she managed to make out a figure of a guy in the darkness, standing so close to her, where Marvel had just stood a minute ago.

Tall. Big. Scary. Sword in his hand.

She blinked a few times, trying to get rid of tears but to no use. She was slipping away. Staring at her savior and not caring whether he was about to kill her, as well, she reached out to him, because it had to be him. _Had to._

_"Cato.."_ she moaned in pained voice. He stayed motionless for a second or two and then took a step forward and knelt down, **_"Cato.."_** she had managed to whisper again before her eyes stopped seeing.

And everything turned black.

* * *

A/N: So, this chapter turned out to be almost 2, 000 words longer than the last one. Guess that explains why it took me longer to update than I'd planned.

**Thank you** for reading, hope you liked it and find a minute to leave me a review. Enjoy your week!


	5. Day 3

A/N: **Thank you** for the reviews. :)

* * *

"Tell me would you kill to save a life?

Tell me would you kill to prove you're right?

[...] Do you really want me dead?

Or alive to torture for my sins?"

- 30 Seconds to Mars 'Hurricane'

* * *

He spent at least thirty minutes, watching her from where he lied, lifting weights. She was at the sword station. Apparently, she was willing to try something new. He respected that about her. She didn't just stick with her knives because that's what she was perfect at. She wanted to make sure she had other skills.

It was late, training hours were almost over and the room was getting emptier, as time flew. He waited until everybody had left and it was just him and her.

He rose from the bench slowly, happy that he was not all sweaty. Well, he couldn't have possibly gotten sweaty, as by then he had spent the last hour or two even, shooting glances at Clove every other second. Good thing his trainer was not at the Academy, he would have given him _crap._

She was there still. Her petite, athletic body moved, as she was trying out different positions with the sword, swinging it around. He grabbed one of the heavier swords and slowly walked closer to her. He was sure she knew he was there.

Just as he lifted it, she quickly spun around and her sword met his above their heads with a loud noise.

He smiled down at her.

"Hey, little girl."

She smirked, but it didn't reach her eyes, which stayed focused and dark.

"You sneaking up on me, Cato?"

He laughed, dropping his arm, "Couldn't if I tried."

She took it as a compliment and lowered her own sword to the ground, staring at him in a way that almost made him shudder.

"I'm glad I didn't cut your arm off just now." She said with a lighter smirk this time, taking a step back "how would you lift your weights?"

"It still would have been worth coming over here to talk to you." He responded with a smirk of his own and she shook her head with a dry laugh, "you're doing a good job with that sword. Want me to give you some tips?"

She smiled, _really_ smiled, and nodded. That's why he liked her so much. She'd always let him help. In a way she had let him in. She never talked to or trained with anybody else. Never _really_ smiled at anyone else. He didn't know what he had done to deserve her company. He'd always been known as the arrogant and inappropriate jerk with a crowd of fan girls following him around. For some reason, though, _Clove_ had let him in.

He moved to stand behind her, his chest pressed to her back, his arms wrapped themselves around her small body. He put his hands on hers to adjust the way she was holding her sword. It was almost intimate. He knew she didn't feel that way, though. Her breathing was slow and steady, her skin goose bumps free. The closeness seemed to have no effect on her, whatsoever...

_He could only hope she didn't feel how fast his heart was beating in his chest._

* * *

With the sound of a canon, his body went cold and his heart stopped beating for what seemed like a minute. His hand squeezed the dagger he was holding and it drew some blood in his palm.

_Clove._

It _couldn't_ have been her. There was _no_ way. He knew her. It could **not** have been her.

He slowly got up, feeling warm blood dripping down his fingers. He ignored it and focused on trying to remember how to breathe. His thirst was long forgotten. He looked up at the black sky covered by a million stars and waited. _Waited.._

"Come on..." he murmured under his breath, unaware that all eyes were on him, _"come **on."**_

Finally in the dark sky he noticed a glimpse of light. He felt adrenaline building, as it grew bigger and bigger until he was staring at a familiar face.

Marvel. _Just Marvel.._

Still looking up, he squeezed his eyes shut and let out a deep breath. His heart started to slow down.

Marvel. A _career._ **First** death in this year's games. If they wanted something unexpected to happen to surprise the audience, that _certainly_ did it. It didn't matter to him, though..

_She's alive. She's okay._ He almost smiled at the very thought.

Cato opened his eyes and they met his allies' confused faces.

_"What?"_ He snapped, quickly recovering from his moment of fear, hoping none of them realized what had thrown him off so bad, "go have a drink before you drop dead." He barked at them with a glare. They hesitated a second and then simply walked away. He glanced to his bleeding hand and squeezed it into a tight fist.

Well.. At least now he had a weapon. But _how_ did this end up here? Who had it to begin with? How did they get it?

_Who the **hell** killed Marvel?_

* * *

**DAY** 3

She woke up to a headache and a weird, numb feeling in her left arm. It didn't hurt. It was more like the feeling you get after having been through a huge amount of pain. Her eyes opened slowly, as if her body could not respond faster to what her brain was telling it to do. She propped her body up on her elbows, feeling as if she had been out for days. Her muscles hurt and even that simple movement required a lot of effort. She glanced at her arm and since for some reason she was no longer wearing her jacket, she was able to notice a long, wide scar across its lenght. All healed.

"Here,"

Clove almost jumped, as his voice interrupted the silence and only added to her confusion. She turned her head and faced Thresh, holding out a silver thermo bottle.

"It's purified." He added, as she studied him carefully, extremely puzzled. She didn't hesistate too much longer to grab it from him, though and quickly took a few large sips that made her cough. Water had never tasted this good to her before. She decided to fully sit up and as she did that, she realized she was covered with a blanket. She frowned.

_"What.."_ she rasped in a weak voice, then cleared her throat before trying again, "what is all this?" She asked, referring to all the stuff they had all of a sudden.

"While you were out, they sent us supplies." He replied from his spot by a tree and pointed to a rather big, black backpack in front of him, "I think you put on a good show for them last night."

Clove watched him for a minute, but he was not looking at her. She rubbed the back of her sore neck and licked her dry lips. She had to ask. As much as she wish she didn't.

"What ..._happened?"_

He rested his elbows on his knees and looked up at her with an odd expression on his face.

"District 1 happened," He growled "you don't remember anything?"

Her eyebrows furrowed, as she tried to focus as best as she could on finding that memory in her pounding head.

"I remember running," she started slowly "from Marvel."

Thresh looked away again. Clove didn't understand why he seemed so.. off. It's not like she actually knew the guy, but he was acting differently, that much she could tell. And he didn't look like he was about to tell her what had happened, either.

Again, she attempted to put all the puzzles together, as the memories from last night were slowly coming back to her.

They found the stream.. Glimmer and Marvel were there.. Glimmer and Marvel, being Career psychopaths equipped with swords and knives attempted to get them... they ran... Glimmer cut her arm open... Marvel caught up with her... he was about to _kill_ her...

She almost gasped. _Cato._ Cato was there. Cato was there and he saved her life. Marvel _died._ Cato was there. Where was he now? Why was he not here anymore? Why was Thresh acting so odd?

Clove opened her mouth to call for him. Call his name. He was probably somewhere near, he wouldn't have left her, he wouldn't...

She closed her mouth before a single word came out. Because her eyes found something, that she hadn't noticed before. Something that was put up against the tree where Thresh sat.

A _sword._ A sword with dark, red marks on its shiny blade.

The shocking truth hit her harder than Glimmer's dagger.

"It was **you."** She whispered loud enough for Thresh to hear. He glanced at her reluctantly _"Wasn't it?"_

She didn't have to tell him what she was talking about. He knew. He just sat there, returning her piercing stare for a minute or two. He said nothing. He looked away.

She understood now. She knew why Cato was not here. He wasn't here because he had _never_ come to save her life. He had not miraculously appeared to help her. Because it _wasn't_ Cato. It was _Thresh._ Thresh had come back for her. _Thresh_ had saved her life. District 11 had saved her life.

District **11** killed a _Career._

She remembered exactly what had happened now. She understood why she was still alive. But there was one thing she was not able to figure out. Just _one_ thing...

_"Why?"_

He wouldn't look at her at all now. Instead, he glanced at the sword on his right side and anger curved his features. She could tell his anger was not directed towards her, though.

"You _know_ why." He said in his deep, quiet voice. He was clearly suggesting that he had only saved her because of the rule change. Because if she had died, his chances of winning would have gone down.

The thing was, though, she was not sure if that was really why. That's what _she_ would have done. _She_ would have saved his life for that reason **only.** But he was _nothing_ like her...

Thresh was obviously done reliving last night, because he got up and went in the backpack, looking for something. She watched him silently, rubbing her once badly injured arm, feeling the rough skin underneath her fingers. He took out a pack of crackers and a bag of dried fruit and walked over to her.

"Here." He said, handing both to her "those are yours."

She took them from him hesitantly, as speechless as she had never been before. _They **saved** them for **her?**_

Without another word, Thresh went back to sit down in his spot by the tree. She couldn't help but wonder what had gotten into him. She had not heard him talk much before the Games started, he had always just kind of stuck with himself during the training, only throwing glances at his little partner. What was her name... _Rue._

But now, even though he was talking, something was different. He almost seemed in _pain._ Did he get hurt? It didn't look like it.

She glanced at the bloody sword and Marvel's dead eyes flashed in front of hers. She shook her head with a silent gasp. _That_ must have been why he was acting so odd. She'd always thought of Thresh as strong and capable of fighting. _Killing._ She and Cato had, after all, considered having him join them. He'd turned them down. But one thing they had not thought of was that maybe he was not interested in direct attack. They sort of figured he was because of how strong he looked. They figured he was going to _want_ to kill, as he definitely had way bigger chances of winning than most of other tributes. But now that Clove was looking at his troubled face, she began to understand that Thresh felt this way because he had _murdered_ someone. And it was the first kill in the Games. He killed someone to save _her_ life, but that seemed to make a small difference for him. He looked like he was not able to get over it.

Clove looked down at the food he just gave her and then glanced at her now healed arm. Then at the blanket that was now resting on her legs. She looked around, searching for her jacket and found it behind her, nicely folded. Someone had put it underneath her head like a pillow while she was unconcious.

She swallowed a lump in her throat. All this was messing with her head so bad she realized she didn't know who she was anymore. She no longer knew what she wanted or how she felt about anything. The Games. Her allies. Whether she did or did not care for winning. Whether she was capable of doing things she knew she would have done if nothing had changed. She didn't know how she felt about Cato, who was somewhere out there probably with the same problem.

What was all this gonna do? She started thinking of the purpose for this rule change. What were the Game Makers trying to achieve? Isn't this going to only anger the districts? Were they actually willing to risk a rebellion for a better show?

She heard footsteps and stirred, throwing Thresh a glance. He still said nothing. He didn't move. She realized she didn't care that much whether a danger was coming or not. So she stayed put, her head still pounding, her muscles worn out and sore.

It soon turned out that it was Katniss and the kid from 4 whose footsteps she'd heard. They stopped at the sight of her, sitting up and awake. Katniss stared at her for a few seconds, then lied her eyes on Thresh. He looked like he didn't even recognize they'd come back. She looked down for a few seconds sadly before glancing at Clove again.

"We caught a rabbit." She told her, holding the dead animal up. Thresh looked up, still with that odd expression on his face. He got up, though, and started gathering some wood to make a fire. Katniss got the backpack and began to go through it. The kid just sat down. They were all acting as if nothing happened. As if they hadn't encountered district 1. As if Thresh hadn't _saved_ her life. Clove did not understand them. She could not understand why they were acting as if this was a freaking camping trip. As if they were not in the Games anymore. Like they didn't know that only one person would get out of here. That everyone, except for one, was going to die.

She felt nauseous and her stomach painfully decided to let her know she'd not eaten for over 48 hours. Which had never happened to her before, being that she grew up in the Academy. She smelled the fire and looked at the fruit and crackers in her hands and felt about ready to throw up. She put them down on the ground, grabbed the water bottle and slowly tried to get on her feet. That made them all stop doing what they were occupied with and look up at her pathetic attempt to keep her balance.

"I need a walk," she told them shortly and slowly took a few steps away from her allies, feeling her body start to remember how to use its muscles.

They said nothing. They let her go.

* * *

Cato woke up with a startle. He shot up in a sitting position, breathing heavily. He had a dream that he was watching her die. And he couldn't help her. He couldn't _reach_ her. He couldn't move. All he could do was watch her screaming his name.

He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath to calm down. He'd never had such a terrible nightmare before. It took him a while to remind himself where he was and what was happening.

Five people had died last night, including Marvel and the crippled boy from 10. Each time the canon went off, he'd wake up with his heart in his throat. And each time he'd look up at the sky and wait for a face to show up to bring his breathing back to normal rhythm. He couldn't believe how much he cared for her. He didn't know he was capable of caring so much about anyone. Of caring at _all._ When it came to Clove, he always had, ever since they'd met, but he didn't really realize just how _much_ he actually cared about her until now. Until he found himself here without her. Until she ended up somewhere out there without _him._ He knew how strong and clever she was, but he couldn't help but worry. If her team hadn't been given any supplies, just like his team, there was a way bigger risk her life could be in danger. It all also depended on who she was in alliance with.

Cato felt someone's eyes on him and he was not mistaken cause as soon as he looked up, he noticed nobody else but Ginger, sitting with her back against a tree, gaping at him. _Again._ He frowned. What was her deal? He knew he was something girls tended to like looking at, but she did it in a creepy way. And it wasn't the first time, either.

"You have a staring problem?"

Surprisingly, she did not break eye contact. She just continued to watch him carefully, like she couldn't figure him out.

"You talk." She said quietly after a moment of hesitation. Cato rose his eyebrows, half annoyed, but his face still broke into a smirk.

"Yeah, I _talk."_ He said, putting emphasis on every word, like she wouldn't have understood if he'd said that any faster "which is something you **don't** do."

"In your sleep," she clarified, unimpressed with his offensive tone "you talk in your sleep."

He lost the smirk instantly. They stared at each other for a long while until Cato couldn't take it anymore. He _had to_ ask.

"Well _what_ did I say then, Ginger?"

She looked away. Well, at least now he knew why she had been so hooked on staring at him every time he woke up. Now that he needed answers, she chose to finally look away? He opened his mouth to throw some nasty, sarcastic comment at her but nothing came out. He had _nothing._

"I think you _know."_

Her response did not calm him down at all. He **did** know. Of course he did. _Her name._ It **had to** be her name that he'd said.

Fear had become a familiar feeling for him, shockingly. But he wasn't scared of others or dying or pain. He was scared _for_ someone. And he was scared of how differently he felt and of how much he knew he'd changed. Most of all, he was afraid of that nightmare, he had just woken up from, turning into reality.

Redhead didn't lie. He was sure she didn't. That nightmare was so damn realistic and frightening, he was surprised he had only _talked_ in his sleep. Instead yelling the hell out of his lungs.

"What's your name again?" He decided to ask, putting on a careless face. She glanced at him with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Lily." She told him. Cato nodded, realizing he had never actually heard it before. He had obviously not been paying much attention to tributes he was so sure he was going to kill sooner or later. It was the key to surviving. Emotional detachment. Knowing someone's name is the first step to a disaster.

That excluded _her_ name, though. He was **never** going to regret he'd asked for it.

"Well, _Lily."_ He growled, sending her a dangerous look "whatever I said while sleeping better stay between us."

He expected her to get scared. He knew she was sure he wasn't gonna kill her now, but she was smart; she had to realize there would come the time when she would no longer be under his protection. And if she wanted him to let her die quickly, she should not go and anger him.

He expected her to get scared. Instead, the little Ginger head sent him a funny look.

"You _do_ know this is a television show, right?" She asked with raised eyebrows "everything we do and say is on cameras. And _everyone_ is watching."

And then she got up and walked away to wake the others, leaving him feeling dumbfounded and humiliated.

There was only one other person that he had ever let get under his skin like that without any sort of punishment. He had to admit that the redhead, despite being from 5 and having a complete different personality and mindset, was intriguing him at least half as much as Clove.

_That only made him miss her more._

He swore under his breath and got on his feet, meeting Ginger's eyes for a split second. And there was no fear, no confusion, no shock in them. If anything, the look on her face made him feel understood and more normal. He shook his head with an angry growl.

Damn you, Lily.

_And you too, Clover. Wherever you are._

* * *

Clove walked and walked, feeling more and more tired with every step she took. But that wasn't even half as scary to her as the fact that she had _never_ felt more confused in her life. Things had always been fairly easy and clear for her to understand. She had no family or friends to care for. Oh well. Tough luck. She was off the hook on this one. That's what she'd always told herself.

They had her train every day to go in the Games to kill. Also clear. Not very hard to understand.

_How,_ though? How could _killing_ people for _entertainment_ be so easy to understand? How could it seem so perfectly _normal?_ How could she be so brain washed? How could she ever think that this is _okay?_

_Damn it._ What was happening to her? She knew she had lost a lot of blood and hadn't eaten in days, but was that enough to put all those crazy thoughts and.. feelings in her head? Was she losing her mind? Or maybe she was finally recovering? From what though? From being the person they had raised her to be? The killer of a vicious nature?

She wasn't watching where she was going, completely lost in her thoughts. All of the sudden she was rapidly falling forward, as she tripped over something big and lost balance. She stopped her face from hitting the ground by putting her arms first; her freshly healed shoulder let her know just how new the scar was. She bit her lip to stop a moan of pain and slowly propped her body up on her hands and knees and looked behind her to what had caused her fall.

All the air left her lungs and her heart started beating so fast she thought it'd escape her chest any second. Her eyes watered just as she heard a loud, terrified scream. Her knees started shaking and she digged her fingers in the soft ground.

It took her a while to realize that her mouth was open and that the scream she was hearing was her _own._

"Clove!"

Her mouth snapped shut and she looked over her other shoulder, as Thresh and the rest of her allies stormed out of the woods. Their eyes found what she was kneeling beside and widened in shock and confusion. The boy from 4 looked away immediately and Katniss hugged him to her side.

Clove tried to stop the shaking, as she turned her pale face away from them, but there was nothing she could do. She felt so extremely cold out of the blue. So cold on the _inside.._

_"Clove..."_

She didn't have to look. That deep, soothing and strong voice could only belong to Thresh. She sensed him coming closer.

_"What is this?"_ She choked out, but she sounded nothing like the Clove she used to be all her life. That voice was _not_ hers. The scared, little girl was **not** her.

"Clove." Thresh whispered again, almost softly and maybe it was the fatigue she was experiencing, but in that moment she wanted nothing more than for him to just hold her, "Clove... come on."

She glanced at him, still in shock. Still horrified. The events of last night came back to her, crushing the bits and pieces of strength she had left inside of her.

"Move away from there." Thresh tried again, now standing fairly close to her with his arm out, offering her his hand _"come on."_

She choked back her tears of pain and all those identified feelings she had never even known existed before. Still shivering, she slowly reached out and he grabbed her small hand in his and pulled her up on her feet. She held onto his hand longer than she had to and once she realized that she quickly let go and took a few steps back.

"What the _fuck_ is going on?" She gasped, shaking her head. Thresh looked at her almost sympathetically and she hated it. She felt so weak and useless. Like a whole, new person. It was almost as if her near death experience had completely changed who she used to be. She hated it and took some sort of comfort in it at the same time. As hurt and exhausted as she was, she also felt more alive than ever. Even if all the feelings that she was experiencing in that moment were terrifying her.

"Let's go back to our camp." Thresh suggested carefully, shooting a glance at what had scared her so much, "please."

Clove swallowed hard and looked at Katniss, who was still hugging the kid in this big sister-like, protective way. His face was buried in her side, as he refused to look. Fire girl returned her stare, her eyes shocked and puzzled. All of the sudden Clove felt _disgusted._ With everything around her. With everything that was going on.

"Do they think it's _funny?"_ She asked, rhetorically, clenching her fists weakly, "to have us play all _buddy_ with each other?"

Katniss glanced down at the boy she had her arm wrapped around, who risked to turn his face and was now watching her standing there with a look of anger and complete and utter disgust on her white, tired face.

"They're _mocking_ us, can't you **see?"** She continued, her voice louder now, as she turned her eyes on Thresh.

He stood there. Silent. Speechless. She felt her eyes soften while looking at him.

That only succeeded in making her _angrier._

"They're mocking _me_ for being unable to kill which was the only thing I was actually **prepared** for. Which was something that they had _trained_ me for ever since I remember. Now I'm allies with people I had felt so _eager_ to kill 2 days ago." She almost laughed at her own words. But Thresh's face froze the almost smile on her face before it had a chance to curve her lips "and they're mocking **you."** She carried on, looking into his eyes "for having to be partners with someone you wanted nothing to do with, someone you wanted nothing more than to steer clear from. For making you protect me. Now you have to _protect_ the **killer."**

At this point, Thresh looked away. He knew very well what she was talking about and so did the rest. He'd _killed_ for her. He'd killed to protect **her.**

"They'd teamed you up with a professional murderer, isn't that just _hilarious?"_ She spat out with a humorless laugh, still keeping her eyes on the guy who now was occupied with staring at the ground. Something broke inside her. After two days in the arena with them and after she'd nearly _died.._ she just didn't care anymore whether it was the right thing to say or not. She didn't _care_ if the Game Makers were now pulling their hair out in rage, planning on how to kill her off.

"You're all acting like it's _okay_ to help each other when deep inside each one of you wishes the other was **dead.** Are we fucking _camping_ or fighting to survive? Do they think it's funny? This is _not_ funny!" She yelled now, motioning between her and them _"this_ is **not** funny." She added, pointing to what she had just been lying beside. To what had made that _terrified_ scream escape her lips.

"Clove..." Katniss whispered "it wouldn't have been funny either way."

The realization of how right that statement was almost sent her over the edge. A few days ago she was _laughing_ along with Cato and the other Careers about how weak and pathetic some of the tributes looked. How easy it will be to kill them. How **funny** they thought it'd be to _wound_ them.

And _now..._ what did she believe in now? _Who_ was she?

_Who are you, Clove?_

"I don't want to be here anymore." She whispered, still feeling disgusted. But not with what was happening, anymore. She felt disgusted with _herself._

_"No one_ does." Thresh said giving her a look of understanding. Clove nodded slowly, again trying to choke back tears she felt were coming. "Let's go back now. Okay?" He asked her and all she could do was nod again. There was nothing left to be said. There was _nothing_ left to be done.

And so she let them lead her back where they came from. Back to their camp. Back to where she woke up as someone completely new and away from the sickening sight that had made her feel so uneasy. Away from the scent of blood.

_Away from Marvel's dead body._

* * *

A/N: Over 5 thousand words again...Hope you like this chapter. Things are gonna get a little out of hand next time. I'll appreciate your feedback, **thanks** for reading!


	6. Hell breaks loose

"And I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad,

That dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had."

_~Gary Jules "Mad World"_

* * *

"I knew I'd find you here."

She looked at his figure, coming out of the darkness and walking over to where she sat, playing with a knife. It was the last night before the Games and she couldn't sleep. She'd tried for hours and finally, incredibly frustrated with herself, she had decided to go for a walk.

And there she was. In the training room, her fingers sliding across the cold blade.

"Your bedroom door was wide open, I figured you'd gone somewhere."

"Hey," Clove murmured, staring up at him from the floor. His hair was messy, his eyes tired and a little red. He almost looked innocent; like a little boy. She smiled.

"What's funny, little girl?" He asked with a smirk, sitting down beside her.

"You don't look like you're capable of killing right now, tough guy." She teased him, thinking it'd piss him off. She was wrong. Cato laughed.

"Well, you don't look all that tough yourself, Clover."

She nodded with a smile, because it was true. She was wearing a simple top and sweatpants, her hair was tied into a messy ponytail. She definitly didn't look like that girl from 2 that hits the target in the very middle every single time she throws a knife.

"So.. what are you doing here?" He asked again, giving up that smirk of his and sending her a questioning look.

"I couldn't sleep." She replied truthfully, shrugging.

"Yeah, me neither."

Clove glanced at him and realized he was sitting quite close to her. She could feel his breath on her face. He was looking into her dark, cold eyes for a while and then smiled. But she didn't recognize that smile. She was used to all his cocky smirks and arrogant laughs, or the rare but _real_ smiles he'd sometimes send her from across the training room. But even those had never ever reached his eyes before.

Now, _this_ smile that he was giving her was something else. His eyes were much softer and _also_ smiling. It was hypnotizing, true, comforting and sad at the same time. _Bittersweet._

"We've been waiting for this, haven't we?" He whispered with that smile still present on his face. Clove glanced at his lips, the corners of them slightly turned upwards , and back into his eyes. She felt her heart speed up and for the first time ever she wished she had never volunteered. She wished she could just spend the rest of her life around this guy... _She wished that.._

Clove shook her head, snapping out of it. She nodded in response to what he'd just said and got up from the floor.

"I'll go and try to fall asleep again," she told him "it's our big day tomorrow."

"Indeed." He agreed. She bit her lip in confusion and nodded again, turning around to walk away. She took a few steps and stopped, feeling his eyes on her back. She looked at him over her shoulder.

"How did you know I was here?"

He was still wearing the same smile and the way it was affecting her made her feel uneasy.

"Well... every time you had a bad day or got mad, you'd run off to that secluded training room people had stopped using ages ago and start throwing knives at everything." He explained, his voice quiet and so different from the tone he normally uses, even around her.

She narrowed her eyes. How _well_ does that guy know her? It _scared_ her. If he knew her that well, he'd just become an even bigger threat in the arena.

Little did she know he was talking about the room where he had officially met her for the first time.

"District 12's floor was my second guess." He added, his smile turning into a smirk. She chuckled, in spite of herself and threw the knife she was holding at the nearest dummy. He followed it and watched as it hit it straight where a human's heart would be. His eyes travelled back to her face and she sent him a small, barely recognizable smile.

"Good night, Cato."

He smiled back at her.

"Good night, little girl."

And she started to walk away, thinking she knew what would happen within the next few hours. Thinking she was prepared for every scenario in the book. She had yet to find out just how _wrong_ she was.

And as he watched her leave with her back turned on him, his smile faded completely, as he began thinking of every possible way to protect her in the arena. Little did **he** know he would not be getting that chance.

She disappeared in the darkness and he swallowed the lump in his throat. He then whispered to himself, having no idea that he was just as oblivious as Clove:

_"See you tomorrow."_

* * *

It seemed like the Game Makers had changed way more than just the things they already knew about. Not only had they teamed them up, left them with no supplies and divided the arena. They had also, apparently, thought it'd be _funny_ if they left the bodies of those who'd died in the arena. Just for good measure. Just to mess with their minds even more.

Clove was not able to shake the look on Marvel's face out of her mind. His lifeless eyes, widened in pain and shock. He was haunting her. There was _no_ getting away from him.

They came back to their spot, fairly close to the stream and Thresh knelt by the pile of wood he must have abandoned when he'd heard her yell. Katniss carried on prepping the rabbit and Clove quickly looked away, feeling sick.

The smell of fire and cooked meat was not doing her any good. Nausea had come back, twice as intense, and as Thresh handed her a piece of that rabbit, her stomach almost flipped at the sight of it. So she sat there, trying not to look at it and force herself into thinking she actually had an appetite.

The rest had absolutely no trouble enjoying Fire Girl's catch. Especially the kid, who ended up finishing first and was now trying to bite every last tiny bit of meat off the bone. She wasn't the only one who noticed, either.

"You want mine, too?" Katniss asked the boy, holding out her half eaten rabbit leg in his direction. He looked at it hungrily, but resisted and shook his head.

"That's okay," he murmured, making the brunette smile lightly.

"Here," she said with a small laugh, handing it to him. He took it from her with a grateful smile.

"Thanks."

Clove looked away and glanced down at the meat in her hand, swallowing hard. She knew she didn't have a choice. She had to force herself to eat it if she were to get out of the arena. That is if she still even _wanted_ to get out. But as soon as the food touched her tongue, she knew her stomach was not going to take it lightly. She swallowed the first piece and grimaced. Quickly, she took another one, then another. She could feel her body trying to accommodate to it but it was no use. She was rejecting it.

Clove picked herself up from the ground and walked away without a word this time. She ran off into the woods, hoping they were not going to follow her. Once out of breath, she stopped and rested one hand on the nearest tree, panting. Another minute had passed before she bent over and threw up everything she'd managed to eat earlier. She coughed a few times and winced at the bad taste in her mouth.

_"Shit,"_ she murmured to herself, squeezing her eyes shut. She knew she had to keep some food down. She was not gonna get better otherwise. She was such an easy target at this point already.

Clove wiped her mouth with her forearm and slowly turned around. But she wasn't going back to her allies. She needed a minute without them. She needed to think, for whatever it'd be worth. Looking around, she tried to remember how to get back to the stream and surprisingly, she didn't have a hard time finding it. It took her maybe a few minutes and there she was, kneeling by the water and washing her face with it.

She looked up to where Marvel and Glimmer had stood what seemed like an hour ago. Right before they tried to kill them. _Her,_ in particular.

She remembered that Marvel was _dead._ His eyes flashed before her own yet again and she closed them briefly to get rid of that image. She looked down at her reflection in the stream and didn't recognize herself.

_Who are you, Clove?_

She looked at her arm, which despite being all healed now, was covered in dried blood. She quickly gathered some water in the palm of her hand and splashed it on her arm, then started rubbing the blood off. She kept doing that until she completely got rid of it and sighed in relief. Her hands reached back and began to untie her hair from how the Capitol people had done it for the Games. When she was done, her fingers ran through her black, soft hair until they were stopped by a few tangles. She took a closer look and realized there was some more dried blood in her hair. So she bent over the stream and slowly started to rub the water in her hair, trying to wash all the blood and dirt out of it. For some reason, she thought it would help her. It would maybe somehow help remove his dead face from her damaged mind. She gathered her now wet hair to one side and stroked it with both hands, feeling the water drip down on her shirt. It felt nice, having it down and free. She realized she'd always had it tied, all her life.

"Hey,"

Clove couldn't help but shiver a little, out of surprise. She looked over her shoulder. Thresh was there, holding the sword by his side, backpack in his other hand. He must have followed her here. Her eyes lingered on the blood marked blade for a while before she turned her face around and glanced down at her own reflection again.

Thresh watched her for a minute, then walked over to where she was kneeling and crouched down next to her. They stayed there for a couple of minutes in silence, until he decided to break it.

"We have to keep moving soon." His deep voice rang out in her ears "you alright?"

"I'm fine." She replied automatically as if somebody had written that down for her. Even though she knew very well she was _anything_ but fine. Thresh looked like he knew that, as well. But he didn't say anything. _What was there to say?_

Out of the corner of her eye, Clove watched him put the sword on the ground in front of him. He gathered some water in the palms of his big, strong hands, just like she did a few minutes earlier, and started to wash the blood off of the weapon. She frowned at his actions, surprised that he just happened to have decided on doing something she had just got done doing herself. Clove continued to watch the blade for another minute and then turned away, splashing her face with cool water one last time. She sighed contentedly at the pleasant, refreshing feeling and kept her eyes closed.

All those terrifying images from the previous night came back to her and she opened her eyes quickly to get rid of them. She could feel Thresh's presence right next to her and _damn it,_ whether she liked it or not it _had_ delivered a little comfort. It had also calmed her down. The fact he was so strong and fearless, the fact that he had saved her life... the fact he reminded her of _Cato;_ all that was comforting her in a way she never would have thought she'd need before.

Once again, her body did not feel like her own. She did not feel like herself. Her mouth opened without her permission and the voice that came out of it sounded _nothing_ like her. Let alone, the words that escaped her lips like a snake:

_"Thank you."_

Thresh stopped cleaning the sword at once, but did not take his eyes off of it. Somewhere deep inside Clove felt so angry at what she'd just let herself say, but she wasn't the same person anymore. And so the bigger, dominant part of her felt... _relieved._ She had never spoken those words to anyone before. Ever.

A good minute or two had passed before he finally turned his face to look her in the eyes; she met his intense stare with her own and she knew there was no need to explain. Because Thresh knew very well what she'd just thanked him for. He still looked shocked enough, though and it took him another while to react. At last, he gave her a simple, but slow nod and she could swear she saw a ghost of a smile on his handsome face before he went back to cleaning the sword without a word.

Clove looked back at the reflection of the girl in the water. She could only hope that before she dies, she will be able to look at that pale, tired face again and recognize the person it belongs to.

* * *

Cato grabbed a hold of the dagger he'd found by the stream and threw it up in the air. It twirled a few times before falling down and he caught it swiftly, looking at the blood stains anxiously. He knew Clove was still out there, alive, but he didn't know whether she was _actually_ okay. She could be injured. He couldn't stop thinking about that. He wasn't sure when exactly he'd decided to give up the crown for her. But he knew what his new mission was.

To win? _No._ Not even close. _She_ was his new mission. He wanted to find her and make sure that **she'll** be the one to get out of here. He didn't want to win. Not anymore. He didn't give two _shits_ about winning. Not after what he'd been through since day 1. Since he'd learned how it feels to fear for someone's life so much. To miss someone in the way he'd been missing _her. _Not since he'd realized that winning would mean losing _everything_ he had.

They carried on walking into the woods, away from the stream. He could only hope that at least one of them would find their way back to the water. Ginger will, most possibly. They had stayed quite far away from it for the night, in case some armed tributes decided to stop by. Cato didn't trust his allies to keep watch and he certainly didn't think they'd be able to fight back if taken by surprise.

"I think we should hunt." Peeta suggested, interrupting everyone's thoughts.

"Other tributes, yeah." Cato laughed dryly, throwing his dagger up in the air again, then catching it, "you're _finally_ starting to make sense, Lover Boy."

"I meant **animals."** The other guy responded coldly, glaring at his back.

"No _shit."_ Cato hissed in a 'shut up' kind of voice, looking over his shoulder. Peeta just looked away, irritated.

"Wait." Lily said all of a sudden, making them all stop.

_"What now?_ You have an even more **brilliant** idea, Ginger?" Cato mocked, smirking at her. She actually smirked back. _Damn that girl._

"No. I need a minute." She said and he raised his eyebrows at her questioningly. "I have to pee, _genius."_

He glared at her for her mocking nickname, but that didn't stop him from sizing her up. And he certainly couldn't help his arrogant nature.

"Want me to come with?" He asked suggestively. If she could play with him, then he could play back. She'd probably never agree but her personality was somehow similar to Clove's. She was also sarcastic, clever and blunt. For some reason, deep inside, he was actually starting to take a liking to her.

"Shouldn't you ask me to _dinner_ first?" She asked sarcastically, already walking away and ignoring his laugh. Well, at least he did have a few laughs with one of his allies. He threw Rue and Peeta a glance, both of them looked very unamused. He raised his eyebrows at them, as well.

_"Anyone else?"_

* * *

Thresh had left her by a stream what seemed like ages ago, yet she still didn't seem to be able to move. She knew they had to keep moving. But she felt like she cared so _little._ Under different circumstances, she probably would have been more appreciative that she had escaped death's embrace. But really, at this point, what did it matter?

She tore her gaze away from her own reflection. It was time to move on. It was time to get up and keep going. And so she did stand up and walked away from the stream back to her allies, feeling clean off all the blood.

As soon as she stepped out of the woods, all eyes were on her. And she knew why, too. She looked different. With her hair down, still dripping wet, her face lacking every sign of hatred and malice it used to _constantly_ hold before.

She also felt no urge to snap at them for staring. That's how different she looked. That's how different she **was.**

"Ready?" She asked in a quiet voice, grabbing her jacket from the ground and putting it on.

"Yeah," Katniss said hesitantly, still wearing an odd and surprised expression on her face. Clove gave her a brief glance before walking away.

_"Clove."_

She stopped and let out a heavy breath, wondering whether maybe she should just keep going. She really did not feel like looking him in the eye again.

"What?" She asked the tree in front of her, instead.

"You should take these."

She cursed under her breath. Now she _had to_ look back. She turned around and faced her savior reluctantly. He was looking at her and holding something in front of him. Something he must have just taken out of the backpack.

_Knives._ At least five of them. For a few seconds, she felt like her old self from before the Games. Vicious. Focused. Dark. Twisted.

Just for a few seconds, though. Then she came back to her senses.

_Why_ was he giving her the knives? Did he really _trust_ her now? Even if she deserved his trust, the new rule was not gonna last forever. Clove looked back up at Thresh. He seemed to be very confident about handing her the best weapon there was for her.

Her eyes moved from him to Katniss who didn't look all that sure whether her fellow ally had a good idea.

"Thanks" Clove said before she managed to bite her own tongue. He nodded at her, as she took the knives from him. And he continued to watch as she placed them inside her jacket. Once she was done, she stared up at him again and held his gaze long enough to make him look away first.

"We should go." Katniss suggested, pushing past them with the kid following her. But they didn't get very far.

Next thing Clove saw was a wall of fire right in front of them.

* * *

Cato was tapping his foot impatiently, as they waited for Lily to come back. He was getting more and more frustrated with everything.

"What's taking her so long?" He snapped at Peeta, who could only shrug in response. Rue was right next to him, giving him a hard to identify look with those big, brown eyes of hers. Cato was about to snap at her, as well, but then something else got his attention. He frowned.

"You smell that?" He asked, looking around. Peeta and Rue also began to search for the source of the smell until the girl pointed at something. Cato turned around and noticed smoke. A lot of smoke above the tree line, fairly close to them.

"Shit. We gotta go. _Ginger!" _he whisper yelled.

_Nothing._ Not a sound. Except for the approaching fire.

"5!" He risked a yell in the direction she'd left. Silence answered him.

And then he heard her. But it was definitely **not** what he wanted to hear. He heard her scream. Rue and Peeta spun around, fear in their eyes.

_"Lily!?"_ Cato yelled one more time, knowing that he was scared. He _knew_ he was scared, because if he wasn't, he would have **never** called her by her name.

A momentary silence was followed by a canon. Panic took over his mind and body and at that point, he could not be stopped.

"LILY!"

* * *

They ran. As fast as they could. They ran, followed by furious flames that the Games Makers had sent after them. Fireballs kept coming out of nowhere, cutting their way out of that hell and making them desperately look for other options. Clove still felt very weak, but she did not dar to slow down. Thresh and Katniss were in front of her, but she could barely see them through the thick smoke everywhere around. She did hear the kid trip and fall behind her, though. She looked back and sure enough he was on the ground, overcome by fear, unmoving.

For some reason, she stopped. She _stopped_ running. Not only that. She ran **back** to get him. Clove, the knife girl from district 2, went back to help her fellow tribute get up.

"Come on," she choked out in a raspy voice, grabbing him by the back of his jacket and pushing him in front of her, just as she heard another hiss _"go!"_

He listened and within two seconds was back on his feet. They dodged another fireball and ran for their lives. Through the smoke Clove made out Thresh standing there, as if waiting for them to catch up. When the kid stormed past him, he still waited for her before he carried on running. And yet again they didn't get too far.

Clove lost the ground beneath her feet and before she realized what was happening, she was rolling down a steep hill with a surprisingly fast speed, hitting every rock and tree painfully on her way down. Finally, she found herself lying flat on the ground with her face down, gasping for air. Her entire body ached beyond belief, as she turned her scratched up face to the side to take a deeper breath.

She did not have it in herself to get up. She couldn't. She was too hurt. She was too tired. So she just lied there. For what seemed like hours.

But then somebody grabbed a hold of her shoulders and pulled her off the ground.

_"You okay?"_

Shaking and coughing, she glanced up at Thresh and nodded. He looked pretty beat up himself. He seemed relieved, though, but that quickly changed, when he looked over her shoulder and his face turned to stone. He let go of her shoulders. Clove frowned, not understanding why he looked so frightened all of a sudden.

But as she turned around, she didn't need another clue.

All she saw was the kid, her ally, the boy she'd _just_ helped up a minute ago, lying on the ground, bleeding out with whimpering Katniss by his side.

* * *

Cato was running in the direction her voice had last come from. He knew there was a very slight chance that she was still alive. He knew that the canon was related to the scream they'd all heard. He knew that it belonged to her. He knew there was a fire coming closer and closer to them with every second.

But he still ran as fast as he could. If she was dead, that'd mean he'd just lost a good couple of points in the Games. That's all he cared about.

_Liar. You're_ a _liar._

"Lily!" He yelled to silence the voice in his head, using the dagger to get through the trees and bushes that were in his way. He stormed into a small clearing and stopped, dead in his tracks with Peeta and Rue right behind him.

She sure was there. Her eyes were looking into nothingness. She just lied there. Still. _Lifeless._

Lily was **dead.**

Cato was breathing hard, staring down at her, anger filling up his body like poison. How did he let this happen? _Why_ did he let this happen? And for fuck's sake, **why** did he _care?_

He stood there in disbelief, as if it was the first time that somebody had died in the Hunger Games. And then he heard a rustle. He looked up and made out a small figure disappearing in the woods.

It wasn't just _anyone,_ though. He'd recognize those blonde curls anywhere. _Glimmer._

_Fucking_ Glimmer.

* * *

A/N: **Thank** you for your reviews! And sorry it took me longer than usual. I was a bit stuck. Hope you liked this chapter, let me know what you think. :)


	7. For the sake of the show

"The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. Look her in the eyes before you kill her.

See her tears, hear her last words. You owe her that much at least."

George R. R. Martin "A Game of Thrones"

* * *

Fury.

In his whole lifetime he had never felt such _fury._ He sure knew what it was like to feel so furious that he'd kill the entire world if he could. He knew what it was like to be so mad he just wanted to spill blood all over Panem. But he had never experienced this kind of fury before. Because someone's death was what had _triggered_ all those emotions to break inside of him. Emotions he was not able to identify. He was furious not because someone had got away from him. Or outsmarted him. He was furious because someone had **died** on him. His chances of surviving this thing long enough to protect Clove had just gone down. On top of that...

_She was dead._ Lily was dead. His ally was dead. The girl he actually started to _like_ was gone.

_Dead, dead, dead, dead..._

"GLIMMER!"

His powerful and furious roar made Rue and Peeta shudder with horror on their faces, as they watched him storm off to where the blonde girl had disappeared. One thing was for sure; she had definitely just heard her name, coming out of Cato's mouth like a death sentence.

* * *

Clove was still and quiet. So quiet she could almost hear her own heart beating in her chest and blood flowing in her veins. She couldn't move. Everything hurt. Her muscles screamed in pain, her head was pounding. She couldn't make a sound. She could only make sure to keep breathing.

_Just keep breathing..._

"No..."

Clove winced at the sound of Katniss' whimper, that interrupted the high-pitched sound in her ears.

_Just breathe..._

"No, no, no..." the brunette cried softly, unzipping the boy's jacket and putting her hand on his shirt, that was completely ripped on the stomach and soaked in blood. He lied there with his head on Katniss' knees, breathing rapidly, his face turning white. Tears fell down his pale cheeks, as his hand squeezed the sharp-edged piece of wood he had probably taken out of his body himself out of shock.

Thresh walked right past Clove and knelt down by the two to take a look on the wound; the look in his eyes told her everything she needed to know.

There was no saving him. She stared at his pained face and felt no satisfaction like a Career normally would. She felt no joy. She felt nothing.

_Nothing._

The boy cried out in pain and Katniss tried comforting him by softly stroking his curly hair and humming under her breath. Thresh closed his eyes for a brief moment before covering the poor kid's ripped stomach by zipping up his jacket again. Katniss interrupted her own soft melody with another whimper.

"It's okay..." she whispered "you're okay... _you're okay."_

Thresh looked at his face, then got back on his feet and turned around, not being able to watch the little boy die. His dark, sad eyes met Clove's

_Breathe, Clove. **Breathe,** dammit..._

_"Deep in the meadow... under the willow..."_

As Katniss began to sing her lullaby, full of great sorrow, Clove couldn't take it anymore. She looked away.

"A _bed of grass..._ a _soft, green pillow..."_

Thresh ran a hand across his head, then looked up, letting out a deep breath. Clove knew what was on his mind. The little girl from his district. _Rue._ And all the children that had died a terrible death in the arena. And for _what?_

_"Lay down your head... and close your eyes..."_ Katniss sang softly, tears marking her face repeatedly. Her voice died in her throat when she looked down at the boy again and noticed his eyes had stopped looking back at her. His chest was no longer moving and his mouth stayed slightly open after he'd let out his last breath. She continued to stroke his hair for a moment, then her body began shaking as more tears fell from her eyes... followed by the cannon.

_Breathe..._

Thresh caught Clove's stare again and motioned with his head to her left. She looked up and to her surprise, there was still a lot of smoke and fire visible. By the looks of it, it seemed like it was coming for them. Game Makers were clearly not done with them yet. She glanced back at Thresh and nodded, hoping he'd understand.

He did.

_"Katniss.."_ his deep voice rang out in between her sobs, as he put his strong hand on her trembling shoulder "I'm **sorry..** but we gotta go."

Clove checked the inside of her jacket, making sure she still had all her knives and that none of them had punctured her skin during the fall. Luckily enough, she was fine. She was certain she wouldn't have even felt any injuries even if she'd gotten hurt. Not until now , anyway. She felt so numb. Shocked. _Distant._ As if her body wasn't her own.

"Katniss, let's go, _come on."_ Thresh tried again, but to no use. He sent Clove a helpless look. He could have just grabbed Katniss away from the kid's body and forced her to move on. But he didn't want to do that. He wanted to give her time to gather herself. Clove threw another glance at the fire that was now much closer. They were running out of time.

"Listen," she said in a firm voice, walking over to where Katniss sat. She was no longer crying. She was just sitting there with a hopeless look on her face, as if she had just lost all the faith she ever had, "I know you didn't want him dead and I _know_ he was just a kid who didn't deserve to die. But you have to remember where you are. As much as the rules had changed, we are **still** in the Hunger Games. There will _still_ be only **one** victor. And if you don't get up, you'll be the next to die. Do you just wanna give up now? _Your sister_ is watching you."

That comment was certainly enough. Katniss' head shot up at the mention of Prim. She stared at Clove with her teary eyes, but there was no hate in them. No anger. She didn't yell at her for even daring to think of Prim. She didn't resent any of what she'd said. Because she knew Clove was right. _She was right._

Katniss looked down at the kid one more time, before closing his eyes gently and squeezing out last tears.

"I'm _sorry..."she_ whispered, her face wincing painfully at the sight of his face. Thresh helped her up on her feet and she nodded with a sniff, letting them know she was back in the game. Clove responded to the other girl's nod with her own and they had no other choice but to run again. Despite how hurt they all were. And not just in the literal way. But there was no time for thinking, licking their wounds or mourning. There was no other option if they wanted to survive. So they ran. Away from the fire. Away from the boy who ended up being yet another innocent kid that had lost his _life_ for the sake of the show.

* * *

Cato ran as fast as his legs would let him, despite the smoke surrounding him. It was getting thicker and thicker and he realized Glimmer was trying to lead him closer to the fire. His blood was boiling with anger. He was gonna get her. She was good as dead already.

_"Cato!"_ he heard Peeta's yell from behind him but he ignored it. He was not about to let her get away with this. She knew Lily was his ally. She **knew.** She must have been following them for a while now. _How_ did he miss that?

He knew how. Careers were not exactly the ones to be hunted. They were the ones to hunt all the others. Always. Nobody else had ever dared do the opposite. Not until the freaking rules had changed. Cato did not see that coming.

He was running even faster now and he could almost sense how frightened she was. There was no getting away from him. He saw her desperately trying to find a way to escape, but it was futile. She must have had trouble breathing, because she began to run away from the fire. The air became much clearer after a while. And so did Cato's vision. The Game Makers probably wanted to see how this would turn out. It was all for the show, wasn't it? For **once,** they came in handy.

He could see her clearly now and was very close to catching up with her. His hands were longing to close themselves around her neck for what she had done. To teach her a very painful lesson. Another minute had passed before finally he got his hands on her.

Cato grabbed her like a rag doll and pushed her up against the nearest tree roughly, making her gasp. She had a knife in her hand which she tried to stab him with, but he was quick to take it away. Her weapon fell on the ground and her eyes widened in terror. She was breathing heavily and shaking, awaiting his next move.

"You _killed_ her," he panted in her face and his voice was like venom "you.. **killed** my ally."

She was absolutely terrified. So terrified he thought she'd have a heart attack any second. She began stuttering, as if to try to say something, but her trembling lips were not capable of making a sound.

"How _stupid_ are you, Glimmer?" Cato hissed hatefully "you should've known better than to **piss** me off."

Rue and Peeta picked that moment to storm out of the trees and Glimmer stared at them in a way that made him think she was asking for help. He also looked at his allies and saw them stand there helplessly. They said nothing. They didn't move. Well, at least they were smart enough not to interfere.

"No one's gonna help you now, _princess."_ he snapped at her, then put the dagger against her neck. She whimpered involuntarily, white as a ghost. He liked it. He enjoyed having her at his mercy. She killed his ally. She _killed_ her. And he was going to make her pay for it. There was a million ways he could think of in an instance to make her scream. And just as he was about to start torturing her, he remembered something that made him stop immediately. He frowned and glanced down at the knife he'd made her drop a minute ago. He stared at her again and saw a glimpse of hope in her naive eyes. Was she actually stupid enough to think she was getting out of this?

"Where'd you get that?" he snapped, motioning to the knife with his head. Her shaking mouth opened and closed with a gasp. He pressed the blade against her skin, drawing a little blood. Tears sprung to her eyes. _"Don't make me ask you twice."_

Rue moved to stand behind Peeta, as if trying to hide. Cato threw his allies a brief glance before glaring back at his prey.

She was armed. _Glimmer_ was armed. How did that happen? Had she also accidentally found that knife somewhere in the woods? What were the odds?

The blonde girl was paralysed by fear but the will to survive must have delivered some strenght because next time she opened her mouth, an answer came out of it.

Still shaking hard, Glimmer whispered: _"Cornucopia."_

* * *

The three of them were following Glimmer to the place she claimed she'd gotten her weapon from. Before Cato told her to show him the way, it had turned out that that one knife was not all she'd had on her. She'd had a bunch of knives and a flashlight inside her jacket before he took them from her. That only succeeded in making him angrier. _Clove was supposed to be the one with all those knives._

"So let me get this _straight."_ Cato said, tired of the silence and staring at her back "you _found_ the Cornucopia."

She didn't look back, probably afraid he would stick that dagger in her face if she did.

"Not exactly..." Glimmer replied quietly "I got a parachute with a message, telling me I was to leave my so called _allies_ and get the weapons so that I could hunt tributes down. I knew everyone else was unarmed."

"You?" Cato mocked, laughing with sarcasm "they chose to give all the weapons to _you?"_

Never slowing down, she took a deep breath then hugged her arms to her chest, nodding. Cato huffed.

"I don't know what's wrong with Game Makers this year, but they're certainly not in their right mind, since they picked _you_ for that."

Glimmer said nothing, though he was sure she was definitely frustrated with his mocking, but she was just too scared to talk back. And she was probably busy, trying to figure out a plan to save her life.

"Don't bother," he said, dismissively, knowing what was on her mind "it's not worth even thinking of."

She still said nothing. Because he was right.

"We're here," Glimmer announced all of a sudden, as she stopped walking and turned around to face the rest. Cato looked around and raised his eyebrows. Rue and Peeta looked just as puzzled.

"Oh, it's invisible? _Should've guessed that one."_ he growled at her, sending her a dangerous look. She ignored him and crouched down, looking for something in the leaves and grass, reminding him of that one time Lily did the same when she was trying to find water. That sent a fresh wave of fury down his spine.

"Whatever you're doing," he snapped _"hurry it up."_

She risked a glance at his angry face and went back to digging in the leaves. Just as he got seriously tired of waiting, her hands stopped searching and she pulled at something he couldn't see. He knew what was going to happen next, though.

And he sure was right because the next thing he saw was an open trapdoor that was hiding stairs leading under the ground. Peeta walked over closer to take a look and his eyes widened slightly at the sight of the bunker. Cato gazed at Glimmer intensely, giving her a chance to relieve if there was anything she was not telling him. But she just stared back, clenching her trembling hands into fists. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously and waited another minute. When he was finally certain she wasn't lying or leading them into a trap, he lifted his dagger, stopping the sharp end of it a few inches from her face.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked coldly _"get in there."_

She glanced at the blade and that was all she needed to obey immediately. She began to slowly walk down the stairs, but then stopped and looked up at Cato hesitantly.

_"What?"_

"Can I have my flashlight? I can't see a thing."

Cato rolled his eyes with annoyance and threw her the flashlight carelessly. She somehow managed to catch it with her shaky hands.

"There's nobody down there, is there?" he asked, as she turned the light on. Glimmer stood there for a little while, then shook her head and continued to step down. Cato wasn't sure what to think of all this. This was some kind of freak show. And he was sick and tired of it.

"Let's go," he told Rue and Peeta without looking at them, before following Glimmer down the stairs. He heard his allies' footsteps behind him so he was sure they'd listened.

It took them maybe a minute to make it to the bottom of the stairs and another minute before Glimmer stopped and located a switch with her flashlight. With a simple click, they found themselves in a big room, surrounded with shelves and tables. But not just that..

They were amazed at the sight of all sorts of weapons there could be. Swords. Spears. Bows and arrows. Knives. Axes. Cato couldn't help but open his mouth in awe.

"Holy _shit."_ he whispered, walking over closer to the table with knives of all sorts and lenghts on it. He ran a hand across some of them and Clove's face popped in his mind instantly. She would be so _thrilled_ to see these. He swallowed a lump in his throat. How he wished she were here with him.

He shook off every thought of her and turned to check on the others. Rue and Peeta were busy admiring the shelves with food on them. There were soup cans, dried fruit, nuts, dried meat strips, breads, apples, crackers and more packaged goods. Cato's own mouth watered and his stomach growled loudly. He didn't want to wait any longer.

"Go ahead." he told his allies. He didn't have to tell them twice. Rue grabbed one of the apples and took a big bite out of it quickly, while Peeta got his hands on one of the bread loafs. _Of course._ Cato picked a bag of dried meat strips and started to chew on them hungrily. Glimmer just stood by the wall, watching them with scared eyes. She had probably been feeding herself just fine so even if Cato was fond of her, he wouldn't feel too bad about having her just look at them eating.

They were just standing there for a few minutes, trying to satisfy their hunger a little, knowing they couldn't eat too much at once. Still munching on the meat, Cato glanced at the Blonde with furrowed eyebrows.

"So you had all this stuff all to yourself?" he asked in disbelief, shocked at the thought itself. She bit her lip and nodded hesitantly, knowing he could explode at any second. But he just laughed humorlessly. "Are they _shitting_ me?" he asked rhetorically, glancing at Peeta, who shrugged with a small smile and put another piece of bread in his mouth. He could only imagine how pissed off Cato must have been with Game Makers' decisions.

"Well... not at first." Glimmer whispered from her spot by the wall. Cato swallowed a piece of beef before asking;

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that I didn't have all this to myself at first... for a while it was me and Marvel."

Cato almost laughed again. _Of course._ Now at least it started making a little bit more sense. He knew there was something off about Game Makers picking only Glimmer to have access to all this stuff.

"Go figure." he murmured, taking another bite. _It should have been him and Clove._ What the hell, Capitol? "So what happened to your partner in crime then?"

Surprisingly, Glimmer looked like he touched a nerve. He smirked cruelly.

"Aww, what is it, Blondie? You _miss_ Marvel?"

She glared. She actually _glared_ at him. He had no idea whether her and the other guy were friends or not, because frankly, he didn't give a crap. Judging by the look on her face, though, she must have felt somewhat sad about the death of her district partner.

"So what happened to him? Who or what killed him?"

The expression on her face changed suddenly. She had this devilish look in her eyes now, as if she just discovered his biggest secret. He just knew he wasn't going to like whatever she was about to say,

"I don't know," Glimmer said in a pretend sweet voice _"might have been Clove."_

* * *

They ran and ran until they couldn't feel their legs anymore, until it felt like somebody else was in control of their bodies, forcing them to keep going. Katniss was the first one to give up. She stopped herself, wrapping an arm around a tree with a fast speed, which almost looked like she had collided with it unintentionally. She slid down it slowly, putting her cheek against the trunk and hugging her arms to her chest. Her hoarse and rapid breathing began to slow down. Clove also stopped and bent over with her hands on her knees, panting. Thresh was close behind her, sweat dripping down his temples.

Clove gave her heart a minute to slow down then looked behind, searching for any signs of the deadly fire that was hot on their heels for what seemed like forever.

"It's _gone,"_ she gasped, greatly relieved. She wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to run for. Especially in her state, where every inch of her skin hurt as if someone had given her a long whipping. She glanced at Thresh and noticed that thankfully he still had their backpack with food leftovers, blankets and some medicine. She also noticed something else. His jacket was ripped and wet on his shoulder. Wet from blood.

"You're hurt." she spoke in a shaking voice, still trying to catch her breath. He looked at his arm and then shook his head at her, letting her know it was nothing. She wasn't having it, "let me see."

"It's fine."

_"Come on,"_ she snapped, running a hand through her hair "don't make me ask you twice."

Thresh studied her for a minute and then allowed a small smile to appear on his glistening face. Just for a few seconds, though. He nodded and put the backpack down on the ground. Clove had him sit down, as well and checked for the medicine that they had used on her wounded arm before. Thankfully, they still had a little bit left. Thresh removed his jacket, hissing when the material rubbed against his injury. Clove moved closer to take a look.

"It's not too bad." she told him quietly, studying the medium deep cut. She unzipped her own jacket and used her teeth to rip off a piece of the bottom of her shirt. He watched her in silence, as she used it to clean the blood off of his arm a little. She then grabbed the small jar from the backpack and unscrewed the lid. She dipped her fingers in the balm and spread it onto his still bloody shoulder. He sighed as it delivered an instant relief. Clove tried to get every little bit of the medicine out of the pot and put some more on his wound, then threw the jar away and wiped her hands on her pants.

"Thanks," Thresh spoke softly without looking her in the eyes. She didn't say anything. What was she supposed to say? _"You're welcome"?_ Not only would it not be her style, but it also wouldn't be good enough. He'd saved her **life.** Rubbing some ointment onto his scrapped shoulder did not compare.

"We should keep moving," she said instead, already getting on her feet and trying not to wince. Thresh's eyes found Katniss' small, abounded figure by the tree and sympathy curved his features.

"Let's give her a minute."

Clove followed his gaze and her own eyes somewhat softened. She didn't want to pretend like she understood the girl. It wasn't like Katniss personally knew that kid. It wasn't like he was her family. But she did have a connection with the boy. She was protective of him. He was just a kid. Probably about her sister's age. That was probably what had got to her the most. It could have been her sister. If she hadn't volunteered, that could have been her sister.

She stared at Katniss' back for another minute, then turned away, feeling very torn. On one hand, she felt like dragging Fire Girl by that braid of hers, because she knew it was only a matter of time before Game Makers decide to spice up the Games again. On the other hand, though... she knew that if it was Cato whose life had just been taken away,... she would want them to give _her_ a minute.

_Just one minute._

* * *

His heart stopped as soon as her name came out of Glimmer's mouth. So carelessly. So effortlessly. It felt like a bucket of cold water was poured on top of his head with an ease. His eyes darkened, as he turned to look the Blonde in the eyes and she saw a murderer in his. He almost seemed even bigger with that dangerous look on his face, as he walked closer to where she stood. She took a few steps back, swallowing hard.

"You _seen_ her?" he asked, his voice shaking with anger. Unfortunately for Glimmer, she realized a little too late that she had made a big mistake. _"Have you?"_ Cato hissed, his voice low and frightening. Peeta saw Glimmer shudder at the sound of it. He couldn't blame her. Cato looked murderous.

"Y-yes." she stuttered and kept moving back and away from him, knowing there was no escape. She had nowhere to go.

"Where? _When?"_ he asked, though in fact he was ordering her to respond.

"Close to here... l-last night." she whispered, as she kept her eyes on his dagger.

"Did she get injured?"

Glimmer bit her trembling lip and her eyes watered. She knew what was coming. Sooner or later. This was Cato. She was not going to go nice and quick. Her back touched the wall behind her and she knew she was stuck.

Her mouth was too dry to get a sound out. And so all she could do was nod. She saw Cato lift the dagger and closed her eyes, trying to somehow prepare herself for all the pain he was about to cause her. She felt a blow by her left ear and then heard a loud noise, as Cato stuck his dagger in the wall right by her head. She waited a few seconds before opening her eyes because for all she knew, it could be the last time.

"You have ten seconds to take me to where you'd last seen her or I _promise_ that you won't like what I do with the blade next."

Glimmer nodded with her heart in her throat. He still wasn't letting her move, though, his face inches away from hers.

"If you had _anything_ to do with hurting her," he whispered darkly, making her shiver again "not only will I _kill_ you.." he paused here again, watching her swallow hard with fear "I _swear_ I will hunt you down in **hell."**

She kept a straight face, though, as scared as she was. Cato took a minute considering what that could mean; she couldn't have possibly hurt Clove. She was too weak. Clove was too fast. It **must** have been Marvel. Right? Unless.. Clove wasn't _actually_ fast enough..

"Pack some of that stuff." Cato interrupted his own thoughts, turning to look at his allies and motioning to a few backpacks, sitting on one of the tables "as much as you feel you'd be able to run fast with."

"We're _leaving?"_ Peeta asked, super confused. Cato knew why. They had everything here. Shelter, food, weapons. And that's why he believed it wouldn't be safe to stay in here for too long. Game Makers had chosen District 1. They had given the access to Cornucopia to Glimmer and Marvel. He had a weird feeling they would not allow them to just use this place as a hiding spot. _The show must go on._

"Just _do_ it." he said, somewhat politely. At least for him. Rue just nodded her little head and walked off to grab one of the backpacks. Peeta watched her go, then glanced at Glimmer for a second before following Rue. Cato raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise. Maybe being civil does actually pay off sometimes.

He turned his head to look at the blonde again, who was trying her best to look confident and completely failing that attempt. She pressed her back harder to the wall behind her, as if hoping for some secret door that'd deliver an out. Unfortunately for her, she was not in luck. Her luck had just run out.

* * *

It started getting dark by the time they made it back to the stream with weapons and backpacks full enough of food on their backs. Cato couldn't help but notice that Peeta had specifically chosen a bow and arrows from the stash of other much smaller and easier to use weapons. He wondered had that decision had anything to do with Fire Girl. It probably did. There was a reason he had stuffed his backpack with knives, too.

As they stopped by the water, he expected Glimmer to just walk across it, but she just stopped and looked around, as if trying to remember something. He waited somewhat patiently, although his anxiety was almost reaching boiling point. He glanced at Peeta who seemed very unhappy about Cato's decision, but since when did he care? He couldn't possibly give less shits that Bread boy wasn't pleased with the idea to find Clove. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't the leader. He was smart enough not to argue, though. Ally or not, Cato would have _seriously_ injured the guy if he'd tried resisting. And Peeta knew it.

He _needed_ to find her...

"It was somewhere close to here. By the stream." Glimmer whispered, looking down at her shaking hands. Cato glared at her, then looked around himself. The clearing. The stream.

_Wait._

His body went cold, as he started putting all the pieces together.

The night he found the weapon by the very same stream.. His own voice rang out in his head, _"It's blood... Fresh blood."_

_"Did she get injured?",_ the question he'd asked Glimmer to which she had responded with a nod.

Cato glanced down at the dagger that still had the red, bloody marks on it. And then he looked at _her._ The expression on her face only confirmed his speculations. She _knew_ what he was thinking. She had recogizned that dagger the minute he'd put it to her neck. She'd had similar ones hidden on the inside of her jacket before he took them away. She _knew_ who that blood belonged to.

_"You."_ Cato hissed and she shuddered at the deadly sound of his voice. If she thought he looked murderous before when she had killed the redhead, there was _no_ words to describe how he looked now.

Glimmer's face turned white, as she began to back away, only to realize that yet again she had nowhere to go. Her back hit the tree behind her and she knew this was it. The moment she had been dragging on was here. There was no way out.

"I.. I _just.."_ she stuttered, shaking more and more with every step he took toward her, "C-Cato, I-"

_"Shut up!"_ he roared, making the three of them jump. He looked like a _maniac._ He looked crazy in the worst way possible. Deadly crazy. The person to cross him right there and then would have to be suicidal, "I _told_ you." he hissed, now maybe two feet away from the terrified girl, "I **told** you to fucking stay _away_ from her. I told you there would be **hell** to pay if you so much as _touched_ her."

She let out a high-pitched scream, as he pushed her against the tree roughly, the dagger she'd thrown at Clove inches away from her pulsating neck. She looked Cato in the eyes and she didn't recognize him. He was gone. His eyes were dark and they lacked every sign of a human being. He wasn't there.

"Cato, _please..._ I was just trying to survive!" she cried, desperately trying to save her life "just like **you** all are!"

He stared at her for what seemed like a few minutes, breathing heavily and picturing Clove getting hurt. That did it for him. He was about to make the first of many more to come cuts, when he heard someone else's soft breathing in the background. He stopped instantly.

_"Peeta,"_

The brown haired boy lifted his head at the mention of his name, coming out of Cato's mouth. _Cato_ called him by his _name._ That's how serious Peeta knew he was about whatever it was he wanted from him.

"What?" Peeta asked, uncertain, feeling Rue squeeze his arm tight, almost cutting off circulation.

"Take her away." Cato ordered through gritted teeth. Glimmer gasped, looking relieved.

_"Thank you."_ she said with tears in her eyes and he felt _sick_ just looking at her.

"Take **Rue** away." he made an obviously very much needed clarification, glaring at Glimmer with hatred. All the hope vanished from her face and she lost it. She began to cry and struggle in panic, "take her away NOW!"

Peeta wrapped an arm around his little ally immediately and turned her around quickly.

_"Come on, Rue."_ he gasped, leading her away fast from Cato and the screaming girl "come on, _quick."_

They ran off into the darkness of the woods, followed by Glimmer's whimpers and screams of agony. Rue's eyes were widened and out of the blue she stopped, as she felt like she couldn't move another inch.

"Rue, come **on."** Peeta told her, almost yelled, trying to tag her along, but she wouldn't even flinch. He knelt down in front of her and covered her ears with his hands, "It's okay. _Just look at me."_ he said in a soothing voice, as if their ally wasn't a few feet away, brutally killing that girl at this very moment "just keep looking at me."

Rue was shaking, as she placed her little hands over his and nodded. Her dark, pretty eyes watered. She felt for Glimmer, she could hear how much pain Cato was causing her. And she couldn't do a thing. Neither could Peeta. It didn't matter that Glimmer would have killed all of them if she had got the chance. Because at this moment, she was just yet another kid, about to lose her life for the sake of the show. And they couldn't do a thing.

They could only pray for the cannon to silence her painful cries soon.

* * *

A/N: my sincere apologies for the long wait, I was going to update Monday but wasn't feeling well and then I really wanted to update yesterday, but I had absolutely no inspiration to finish this whatsoever and you guys deserve a properly finished chapter. On the bright side, this one was the longest so far! Hope you liked it and can't wait to see what you guys think.

Big **THANKS** for all your encouraging reviews, I really appreciate your support and am happy that you seem to enjoy this story! :)

Special **thank you** to one of the guests **"dominicana"** who left 3 reviews on the recent chapter, reminding my sometimes busy, sometimes lazy butt to wrap this thing up! ;)

One more thing, I have also posted another Cato&Clove story that I had written months ago but just never got around to edit and put on here for some reason, until now. You can find it on here if you go to my profile, it's called "Sorry":

I'd be thrilled if you wanted to take a look on that one, as well.

Thanks again! Hope you all have a great weekend.


	8. The odds are never in their favor

A/N: thank you very much for your reviews, guys!

**-dominicana,** you're very welcome and thank _you!_ :)

Longest chapter so far. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

"No, you'll never be alone. When darkness comes, you know I'm never far.

Hear the whispers in the dark."

- _Skillet "Whispers in the dark"_

* * *

_"Ready?"_

_"Hell yeah."_

He smirked at her response, as he positioned himself for hand-to-hand combat. He still didn't fully understand why they had told them to fight each other. They were in two different leagues. She was so tiny he could break her within a second. If she didn't stab him with one of her precious knives first, that is. As small and seemingly harmless as she looked, she was in fact deadly. Everyone knew that.

Cato guessed it was just a protocol. To have people of completely different body stracture and skills fight each other, because there was a great possibility they would end up coming against someone like that in the arena. He shook all these thoughts off when Clove threw the first punch and he quickly dodged it. His smirk grew wider.

"Come on, little girl. You gotta be faster than tha-"

His voice was cut off, as her little fist hit a sensitive spot on his neck. He stepped back, his smirk long gone.

"And you gotta stop talking so much." Clove bit back and by then she was the one wearing a sly smile. His eyes darkened, as adrenaline and anger made it into his blood and poisoned his mind, making him forget everything, who he was fighting included. He tried hitting her back, but she was too fast. He tried again and again, but her little form was moving so quickly his trainer himself seemed impressed. That only made him angrier.

The next punch he threw did hit her and she gasped, despite herself. He was very powerful and the hit took her breath away. He took advantage of that and knocked her down, pinning her to the floor. There was no escape for her at this point. But he didn't know just how wrong he was about that until he felt pain in his abdomen after Clove's knee had hit it with a surprising force. She pushed him off of her and ended up as the one on top. She didn't stay like this for long, though, and was trapped under him again in a matter of a few seconds. She struggled helplessly, but he made sure she'd not be able to throw him off this time.

_And then he looked at her._ His vision cleared up. Anger had passed and his eyes turned light blue again.

He was beating Clove up. _Clove._ His little partner.

"Shit, Cato, I'll **kill** you after we're done this." she hissed under her breath and he realized she was in pain. And that made him hate himself more than usual. He felt his grip on her loosen and she was about to throw him off of her when he spotted a group of men, watching them by the door and taking notes. Blood rushed to his face.

He _knew_ who those people were.

_"Fuck,"_ he swore and she frowned, sending him a quizzical look and, apparently, forgetting what they were doing for the time being. He stared down at her again and she noticed a ghost of concern in his eyes. "stop fighting me."

_"Screw_ you!" she snorted, struggling again.

"Do as I say!" Cato whisper yelled and something about the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice actually made her stop. Clove's trainer shouted for her to keep going, but she didn't. "The **hell** you're doing!?" he yelled at her, but it was too late for him to even try to change her mind. It was over. Cato was announced the winner and Clove pushed him off of her. He got on his feet and held out his hand for her to help her up, but she slapped it away angrily and got up on her own with a quiet hiss of pain.

"Locker room." she told him, her eyes shooting daggers _"now."_

He nodded and followed her out of the gym. Both of them ignored people's stares and Clove's trainer, who was by now openly cussing them both out.

They walked down the hall and Clove went inside the locker room. As soon as Cato closed the door behind them, she roughly pushed him against it, again shocking him with how strong his little girl actually was.

_That_ little girl. She was **not** _his._

"Six words. The hell do you think you're doing?" she snapped through gritted teeth, looking about ready to cut him to pieces.

"That's _seven_ words."

_"Cato!"_ she yelled, unamused "you think you can just go and make them think that I'm weak? You made me _forfeit._ Give me one good reason why I shouldn't split your face open with one of my knives right now."

He let out a heavy breath, but made no attempt to push her away.

"Did you see those people by the door when we left?" he asked her.

_"What about them?"_

"They were observing. They _watched_ us fight."

"So?"

_"So?_ Clove, they were Game Makers. They were the ones that _choose_ Careers that will have to volunteer this year."

"I'm not following." she said coldly, but her voice lacked the anger it was filled with a moment ago. Cato almost rolled his eyes.

"And here I thought _you_ were the smart one." he allowed himself a comment and watched Clove's eyes go dark. "Look," he continued before she had the chance to retrieve a knife. "I didn't want us to continue fighting, because we're too good. We work **too** well as partners. You get it now?"

She still looked puzzled, though her face seemed a bit more relaxed. But he knew she did not get it. She really did not understand.

_"Damn it,_ Clove, they would have picked us to volunteer. Both of us. _Together."_ he explained as clearly as he could, grabbing a hold of her shoulders "do you want that to happen?"

She stared into his eyes, as realization of what he was talking about finally got to her. She stepped back and his arms fell to his sides. He was looking at her in a way he was not supposed to. And it scared her. It scared her so much she almost felt like running out of the room. Yet she didn't. Instead, she just looked down to the floor and shook her head.

"Cato, what did you _expect?"_

He furrowed his eyebrows, gazing down at her tiny form. A look of disbelief on his face.

_"What?"_

She looked up at him with emotionless eyes and shrugged.

"That's what happens when you train with another Career, who's just as good as you are." she said, completely indifferent "that's what happens when you work so well with them. I will not be surprised at all if they pick us this year."

He didn't know what to think. He didn't know whether he should slap himself or _her_ first. And she just continued to gape at him, as if she had no idea what had got him so worked up. As if everything was just fine.

_Nothing_ was fine.

"Clove," he said her name angrily for the first time ever. "don't act like you don't give a _shit."_

"I don't." she said, sounding so sincere that he found himself at a loss for words. Either she was a great, freaking actress or she really couldn't care less. Knowing Clove, it was most likely the latter. And it stung him like a tracker jacker. "I'm going back."

She moved to push past him and toward the door, but he grabbed her arm, pulling her back.

"You're too young to go in the arena. I was trying to protect you."

_"Please,"_ she snorted "I am the best there is and you _know_ it."

He couldn't help but let the fear show on his face because she was right. He knew she was. And he knew what that meant. Clove didn't fail to notice the look he was giving her either and it actually made her dark, cold eyes soften for a few seconds. Just for a few seconds, though.

And then she jerked her arm out of his grasp and walked out of the room, leaving him to figure out what in the world he was going to do if they were to end up in the arena together. In the place from which only one of them would escape, leaving the other behind... and _dead._

* * *

Tears and blood marked the ground accompanied by screams full of pain and agony. To Rue it felt like hours had passed, like she had spent ages covering her ears with Peeta kneeling in front of her, soothing words of assurance coming out of his mouth. Words she couldn't hear, nor understand. She just stood there, rocking herself back and forth slightly.

And then everything stopped. The awful silence froze the blood in her veins when they heard it.

_The cannon._

Rue shut her eyes tight, fingernails digging into the skin on Peeta's hands, but he barely even felt anything.

"It's okay," Peeta whispered, keeping his hands on her ears still. "it's over, Rue. It's okay."

They learned soon enough that nothing was _okay,_ as they heard someone approaching them quickly and a few seconds after Cato stepped out of the trees. And as they looked at him, even Peeta wasn't able to contain himself. Fear seized his body and his eyes grew bigger, just like Rue's, who started shaking again in front of him.

Cato just stood there, his dagger by his side, blood dripping from it. But that wasn't even nearly everything. The entire front of his jacket was also wet from dark red blood. And so was half of his face. Thin streams of blood were still running down his cheek to the neck. His chest was moving rapidly, and though his lips were parted, he looked like he wasn't breathing. His eyes were dark, with intense hatred filling them and although Peeta couldn't actually say he knew this guy, he still didn't recognize him. He looked truly evil. Like the devil himself. Like he was rid of everything that made him human.

Peeta felt Rue squeeze his hands hard in fear, but he couldn't think of one thing to do or say to comfort her. Because he was freaking out himself.

"What are you _staring_ at?"Cato growled in his deep voice, his face curved in anger, letting them know just how bad of an idea it would be to open their mouths right then. "Let's move. **Now."**

Peeta looked at Rue, silently telling her to just snap out of it for the time being. He quickly got on his feet, ignoring how terrified he felt. Rue grabbed his hand in hers and he tagged her along with him, following Cato that was already walking away.

Peeta couldn't help but think, though.. maybe Careers were not bad to begin with. They certainly aren't born just plain bad. And he didn't think that all the training they had done made them bad to their bones, either. It's the arena that truly changes them. It's the first murder, the first time they spill blood that turns them into monsters. As unkind and ruthless as Cato had been from the start, Peeta had a weird feeling that this was nothing compared to what he'd just become. He wouldn't be surprised if his blood was the next thing to land on this guy's face.

* * *

_"Clove."_

"What?"

"Exactly _when_ did you stop talking to me?"

She sighed, not even looking up, as she twirled her fork in the dish in front of her.

"I _didn't?"_

"Stop playing games." Cato snapped, sitting at the table right across from her and slamming his tray down on it way harder than necessary. That resulted in soup spilling all over his shirt. She glanced at it and went back to digging her fork lazily in the food on her plate. "What's your problem?"

Clove sighed again, as if she was super tired of everything, including his company. Which she was.

"I'm trying to eat my damn lunch, Cato. I don't have a problem. You're the one that stopped hanging out with me."

"No, I stopped _training_ with you. Difference."

"There's **no** difference. That's all we ever did together. _Train."_

Cato glared at her, making her look away. He knew she was just pretending. There's no way that all this was just in his head... _Was there?_

"So you're mad at me? You're mad I stopped training with you?"

"Why would I be mad? I don't care." Clove shrugged and it shocked him how indifferent she was able to make it sound. Why was she acting like this? Why was she so damn _stubborn?_

"You know what, little girl?" he snapped at her, clenching his fists under the table. "I don't care, either."

And with that he got up, making everyone look at them. He didn't care. He didn't give a damn. Cato stormed off as far away from his former partner as he could, his lunch long forgotten.

* * *

**DAY** 4

Clove woke up, startled, shooting up in a sitting position, sweat dripping down the back of her neck.

_Cannon._

She looked up, silently trying to comfort herself that there was no way his face would be the one to appear in the black sky. There was just **no** way.

Thankfully she was right. A blue eyed and blonde haired, very familiar to her female had just joined the other fallen tributes. Glimmer. _Just Glimmer._

A huge relief washed her over, as her heart began to remember its normal rhythm.

"You alright?"

She turned her head and her eyes met Thresh's face, which she was able to make out with the help of the fire that was between them. She had a feeling he'd only asked because it was Glimmer that just died and she was Marvel's district partner. He probably thought that, being that the blonde had a lot to do with her near-death experience, it was going to affect her in some way.

"Yeah, I was just-" she paused because, to her horror, her voice cracked. "... bad dream."

He stared at her a little longer, then nodded slowly in understanding. She swallowed hard and folded her arms across her chest, feeling chills run down her spine. Funny. She never would have thought that a dream consisting of blood and corpses would scare her so much. She'd been dreaming of the arena for years now. This one, though, did frighten her. And she knew why. Things had changed too much. _She_ had changed. And if that wasn't enough, Cato was present in her extremely realistic nightmare, as well. Only he wasn't on her side.

"You know what," Clove murmured, running a hand through her hair. "I will take over for you now. I'm not really up for going back to sleep."

"You sure?" he asked.

"I'm sure." she told him, not giving him any room to argue. She was sure he'd just shrug it off and leave her be. But apparently she had the wrong idea about this guy, which wasn't really that shocking. She had the wrong idea about everyone.

"Are you and the guy from your district friends?"

She froze, her eyes stubbornly plastered to one spot in front of her, as if she wasn't capable of looking at anything else.

"No." she choked out. "Why?"

"It wasn't the first time I heard you say his name in your sleep."

Her body went numb. She had been so good at hiding any sort of feelings she had when it came to Cato and now this? How much did she say? How loud did she scream his name? Because if she'd screamed half as loud as in her dream, then everyone in the arena must have heard. Few minutes had passed, before Clove finally found her voice again;

"We're not friends. We just used to train together."

Thresh was silent for a while, but she didn't dare to look at him. Maybe if he didn't get the chance to look her in the eyes and see all those feelings she was hiding, maybe then he would believe her.

"Okay." he said finally. She sensed he had occupied himself with something else and decided to throw a glance at him. He was writing something in the ground with the sword. And the face she hated so much reappeared in her head again.

_"You think he'll **cry** when he sees your face in the sky tonight?"_ Marvel's hateful, mocking words echoed in her ears, as if he was right by her side, whispering them to her. She couldn't help but wonder, as much as she didn't want to, how Cato would actually take it if she were the next one to go? How would _she_ deal with _his_ death?

She kept her eyes on the sword until Thresh put it down and lied on his back. His eyes stayed open for quite a long while and then he finally appeared to have fallen asleep. With time, Clove realized that watching him had actually become comforting. That was why she took a liking to him. He affected her in the same way Cato always had. Cato gave her the illusion of normalcy. He made her feel safe, even though she was anything but easily scared and was never the insecure type. He made her feel like she was just girl. Like everything was easy. Around him she was able to forget what kind of world they lived in.

Thresh made her feel the exact same way. She found his deep voice, strong posture and confidence soothing.

Hours flew by and her eyes stayed attached to her ally. As if she was too afraid to look away. As if something bad would happen, if she turned her head. Eventually, though, she realized it was probably time to get going. The fire was long out, sun was up and bright and it seemed like it was late morning already. Clove rubbed the back of her neck and got on her feet. Around her wrist there was a hair tie she had saved back from when she'd undone her hair. She used it to tie her hair in a high ponytail, before approaching Thresh slowly. She stared down at him for a little while, then bent down to shake him awake, when she noticed something on the ground next to him. She moved to take a better look at the words Thresh must have written down last night with the sword.

_The odds are never in our favor._

Clove stared at it with a dry throat. If the cameras had caught that, there was a good chance they were in serious trouble. Game Makers were not going to tolerate this act of rebellion from him. They had already made them pay for what she said when she had stumbled over Marvel's body and shouted out how the Capitol was mocking them. She was positive it was _her_ words that had cost them their smallest ally.

Thresh stirred, probably having sensed someone hovering above him. His eyes opened before she had the chance to stand up straight. She took a step back quickly and he sent her a questioning look.

"I was just about to wake you up." she clarified.

"Okay." he said slowly, standing up. He followed her gaze to the ground and put the pieces together. He picked up the sword and she looked up at him with an odd expression on her face, waiting for him to explain his actions. But he just stood there, as calm as always. She decided to let it go, then looked around and spotted Katniss, still sleeping. She opened her mouth to ask where the kid had gone and she actually had to remind herself about what happened. The kid was no more. As indifferent as she knew she should feel about that fact, it still felt odd. Like something was not right. It almost scared her that she felt this way. It scared her she felt _any_ way.

Thresh woke Katniss up and she let out a groan, but did get on her feet pretty fast without a single word or look at either one of them. Her pale and tired face still expressed a great sorrow, yet she said nothing. She just waited for whoever was going to take the lead. Clove tore her gaze away from the other girl, just as her stomach began to growl. She swallowed, happy her appetite was somewhat back.

"Here." Thresh's voice caught her attention, as he threw her a bag of crackers she had never finished. She caught it swiftly in the air before it had the chance to hit her face. She opened her mouth, but her 'thanks' died halfway through her throat. As much as she actually respected Thresh, she still wasn't capable of bringing herself to act more normally. Even saying such a simple word was hard for her. Once was enough anyway, wasn't it?

"Let's go before the audience gets bored with us." Thresh told them, turning around and walking away, the sword flashing in the sun. Just like Marvel's face was still flashing in her mind.

The sound of a cannon interfed her thoughts and they all stopped to look up. It was followed by three more. And then faces began to appear in the sky. Clove found herself olding her breath again She couldn't help but wait anxiously, silently praying to something greater than all of them for Cato to be okay. She still didn't understand what had her care so much. Going in the arena of death was what it took for her to realize he was not indifferent to her. Going in the arena, where she had always known she'd end up one day _and_ it was what she had trained her entire life for. Now how _ridiculous_ was that?

Faces disappeared one by one, just as quickly as they appeared. Boys from district 5 and 6. And girls from 7 and 9. All those kids were gone. She wondered what happened to them. Was there more kids out there that had been given weapons? Or had the Game Makers managed to cook up something new? She realized she didn't even care, as long as he was still alive.

_He__'s still alive..._

Thresh was right. They had to keep moving. The faster the better. Maybe Game Makers did not catch the words her ally had marked down in the ground. As soon as she thought that to herself, though, she wished she hadn't.

The ground began to quiver beneath them and it took them maybe a second to realize what was about to happen. Her bag full of crackers fell on the grass.

_"Go!"_ Clove yelled and her allies obeyed immediately, following her as fast as they could to get out of the woods. But they must have been quite deep into the forest, cause as hard as they tried to find a clearing, they couldn't. Trees began to shake dangerously, branches began to fall. Clove dodged one of the big ones by jumping aside, which resulted in her falling and rolling over. She quickly got on her feet and another heavy branch fell where she was lying two seconds earlier. Her heart started to pace in her chest, as she continued to run while trying to avoid getting hit or crushed by one of the many falling trees. Adrenaline had equipped her with extra strenght and so she couldn't feel that she had torn the skin on her thigh open with one of her knives when she'd rolled over. She felt no pain whatsoever. She ran faster, than she thought she could, without looking back. Trees kept falling everywhere around and she began to think this was it. She was about to die. There was no way out. Game Makers wanted them dead. Apparently, they finally realized how stupid the idea to change the rules was. Now they probably were going to just kill them all off. How's _that_ for an entertaining show?

Completely out of breath and rid of every hope for surviving, she started to slow down. And just when she did that, she noticed a glimpse of light in front of her, shining through the trees, like the proverbial light at the end of a tunnel. She ran for it, feeling tons of thinner, sharp branches fall on her head. She did not stop though and pretty soon she was running out of the woods into a huge clearing. When she was finally far enough from the trees, she stopped and bent, resting her hands on her thighs, panting. She swallowed hard and tasted blood in her mouth. The ground finally stopped shaking underneath her feet and her heart was beating slower again.

Clove gave herself another minute to calm down and stood up straight. That's when she felt a lump in her throat, because she realized she was completely _alone._

"Thresh." she gasped and turned around, her face and neck covered in cold sweat and minor scratches. _"Thresh!"_ she risked a somewhat quiet yell, hoping that he was about to storm out of the woods, but with minutes having passed by, it became clear to her that... he was _not_ coming. Neither was Katniss.

_"Dammit."_ she cussed under her breath, then looked around helplessly, not knowing what to do. She felt a weird sensation in the pit of her stomach and that didn't even shock her as much as the fact that she _knew_ what that feeling meant.

She was _scared._ And she was lonely. And most of all, she hated the idea of her allies gone.

"Great." she murmured and bit her lip anxiously, hugging her arms to her chest, as the cold wind made her shiver. She couldn't believe that she was this person. Alone and afraid. Weak. _"Get it together, Clove."_ she told herself, trying to remember how she used to feel as a Career. Trying to figure out how she would have felt if the rules had never changed. How confident she would have been.

Gathering all the strenght and courage she had left, Clove nodded confidently to herself and put her hand on one of the knives she had behind her belt, as a precaution. She started walking across the clearing, her eyes squinting in the sun. She was walking for no longer than five minutes when she made out something that looked like a cabin by the woods on the other side, not too far away from where she was. She held her breath, as she began to get closer. There was a very good chance it was a trap. But it was also very likely she'd find something useful in there. And if she was going to be on her own from now on, then she needed something more than her knives.

_On her own.._ those words echoed in her head and she felt a pang of guilt burn her insides. She had _left_ them behind. She'd _never_ looked back. For **once** she had done something the way she was supposed to, as a tribute from district 2. But if that was the case, then why did she _hate_ herself so much?

And why the _hell_ couldn't she throw the image of Thresh's face out of her head?

* * *

Cato was sure he had done everything he could to reverse his own actions, reverse the worst decision he had ever made; training with Clove for the Games. By the time he had realized how dangerous that was, he was afraid that it was already too late. He stayed as far away from her as he could during training sessions, but what frightened him was that this probably wasn't even going to help at this point. Clove was the best. And he was the best. They had been watched for _months_ now. Their trainers had definitely got in touch with the Capitol and presented their own opinions about them. Cato was hoping that if they saw how friendly he was with her, they'd give up on the idea, as that'd have them consider a possibility he wouldn't be able to just kill her when it came down to it. That was very unlikely, but even if that was the case, there was one problem. Clove had completely cut him off. He was out of her life. Every time he tried talking to her, she would introduce same indifferent attitude towards him. Which made things even worse. That was surely going to convince everyone how little, if at all, she'd care if she had to kill him in the arena.

The day for announcing names of Careers that were to volunteer came way too fast for Cato's liking. He rubbed his sweaty palms against his pants, as he stood in the hall with other candidates for tributes in the 74th Hunger Games. Everyone was anxious to find out which _lucky_ girl and boy would get the chance to represent District 2 in the most dangerous game that had ever been thought of. Cato had imagined this moment multiple times; how excited he'd feel to hear his name called out in that hall. How _proud_ he'd feel, walking up on the stage with his head high, sending everyone a dark glare.

But as the director of the Academy, to no one's surprise, called his name, he felt _anything_ but excitement. Anything but _pride._ His legs were numb when he took the first few steps toward the stage. But he made it up there and clenched his fists into tight balls, gritting his teeth to stop them from chattering. And there was only one thing he could think about.

_Please, not her. Please, not Clove. Please, damn it. **Please.**_

"Congratulations, Cato." said the man who, for all Cato knew, had just signed a death sentence for him. "Time to announce which one of our female Careers will have the honor to represent our district in the arena in a few weeks."

Cato looked down on the crowd of familiar faces and within a few seconds he found the _only_ one he cared for. She wasn't looking at him, but he was sure she could feel his eyes on her.

_Please, **no.**_

"I think we all know who the lucky female volunteer will be," it seemed like his heart stopped beating right then and there... and then, _"Come on up, Clove."_

He squeezed his eyes shut for a brief moment and held his breath.

_No._

There she was. Walking up the stage, looking just as indifferent as she had been to him for the last few weeks. She stopped right next to him and faced all the people, who were watching them with pure envy on their faces.

_**God,** please, no._

"Tributes, shake hands."

He glanced at her hesitantly, feeling adrenaline run through his veins like poison. She turned her body to face him and held out her little hand, waiting. Cato let out a breath he was holding and grabbed her hand in his, shaking it. Her eyes were cold and dark, not a sign of fear, not a _hint_ of regret. He looked into them, searching for the slightest ghost of feelings. _Anything._ And just as he gave up entirely, realizing he would just have to be okay with the fact she will attempt to murder him in cold blood the first chance she gets, he felt her squeeze his hand lightly. It was so light he almost thought he'd imagined it. But at the same time he knew he didn't.

And then she let go of him, as insincere clapping cut through the silence.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the Academy, I present you district 2 tributes of the 74th Hunger Games! Clove and Cato!"

Everyone was still clapping, but nobody looked excited for them. Nobody looked thrilled. If anything, they all looked like they hoped the both of them would die with the sound of the opening gong.

Cato jumped off the stage and pushed his way through the jealous, hateful crowd. Their murmurs and hissing whispers almost sounded like the buzz of tracker jackers, about ready to go after their target. He ignored them and ran down the hall, hot blood pulsating in his ears. What the _hell_ was he going to do? He almost broke the door to the locker room, as he stormed inside with his hands on the back of his neck. He was panting and desperately trying to control the rage he felt inside. But it was no use.

"Son of a _bitch!"_ he cussed, hitting the nearest locker with such force his punch easily left a deep dent in its door. He hit it a few times more, wrecking it completely, his knuckles screaming in pain. But he was seeing red. He didn't care. He couldn't feel the pain or the blood dripping down his hands. But he did sense someone's presence. His head shot up in hopes he'd get the chance to beat someone up for relief, but there was no way he'd be able to do that.

Because it was _her._ She stood there, shocked and he felt his heart in his throat at the sight of the only person on this planet he cared about. The only person he had learned to like. _Respect._ The same person he was going to have to **kill** in order to survive.

They were gazing into each other's eyes for what seemed like hours and he lost it again. He grabbed the nearest chair and threw it across the room. It hit the window and shattered the glass into a million pieces. Clove didn't even flinch. She just watched him collapse on the ground, his head hanging hopelessly between his legs with his forearms rested on his knees. She closed the door behind her and continued to look down at him. After another minute, she also sat down on the hard, cold floor with her back pressed against the door. Cato let out a heavy breath and looked up, connecting his swollen eyes with hers. She didn't offer him any form of comfort. She offered him no hug, no smile, no pat on the back. She just sat there. That was all she was able to do. That was all the comfort she could afford.

They stayed like that for maybe an hour. Maybe two. Waiting. Waiting for whoever would be the first one to find the courage to leave the other alone.

* * *

Clove stepped inside the cabin, her hand resting on the handle of her knife, all alert and ready to attack. The inside looked typical, nothing really extraordinary. It seemed safe. Which was what worried her. In the arena nothing is ever what it seems. She looked around and a huge mirror caught her attention. She slowly took a few steps closer and stared at her reflection. She did not recognize herself. She could not possibly look so thin and pale and useless. Scared. Injured. Blood seeping from the scratches that the earthquake had caused her. If it wasn't for the fact she didn't want to attract any unwanted visitors, she would definitely smash that mirror to pieces.

Clove glanced at her white face and tired eyes once more before walking away and inside one of the rooms to her left. Everything seemed in order. Like nobody had put a foot in here before. There was a bed, a little table with roses on it that were making the whole room smell awfully sweet. But there was also something else to that scent. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Sunshine was trying to get in through the old, dusty window. She opened the door to her right and it turned out to be a closet with outfits inside; everything from nice dresses to coats and jackets. She ran a hand through them and almost smiled. No more freezing nights for her. She was hoping that maybe she'd find some food in here, too. She was about to turn around to go and try to find some, when she sensed someone else's presence in the room. Her heart began to beat faster in her chest instantly, but she stayed focused. She was trained for this after all. They'd taught her how to acknowledge a potential threat; she basically had her eyes in the back of her head. At least she _used_ to. Something was telling her that whoever stood behind her had been there for a while. Her Career instint somewhat failed her.

Clove squeezed the handle of her knife and got ready for whatever was about to happen next. With one swift movement, she turned on her heels and lifted her weapon only to end up being pushed against the wall behind her. The hand that held the knife was trapped by her opponent's arm above her head and she was stuck and unable to move an inch. She looked up, ready to face whoever it was that had taken her by surprise like that.

As soon as she did, her blood froze in her veins and she forgot how to breathe.

_Those eyes..._

"Hey, little girl. _How's life?"_

* * *

A/N: Nothing like a cliffhanger, right? Again, thank you **so** much for your reviews, I'm sure you know just how much they mean to me if you also posted something on here before. I really hope you liked this chapter and that you are still interested in where I'm going to take this next. I have started writing chapter 9 already, so hopefully it won't take me long to update.

Please, let me know what you think! Wish you all a great weekend. :)


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